OPENING  CEREMONIES 


DF    THE 


YORK  AND  BROOKLYN  BRIDGE 


MAY   24,  1883 


BROOKLYN,    N.  Y. 

1883. 


Fletcher  Free  Library, 
Burlington, 


PRESS 


TRUSTEES    AND    OFFICERS 


NEW  YORK  AND  BROOKLYN  BRIDGE 


TRUSTEES, 


NEW  YORK, 


JOHN    T.   AGNEW, 
JOHN    G.   DAVIS, 
J.   ADRIANCE    BUSH, 
HENRY    CLAUSEN, 
THOMAS    C.    CLARKE, 
CHARLES    MACDONALD, 
H.   K.  THURBER, 
JENKINS    VAN    SCHAICK, 
FRANKLIN    EDSON,   Mayor, 

Ex-ojficio. 
ALLAN    CAMPBELL,   Comp., 

Ex-ojfficio. 


BROOKLYN. 


WILLIAM    C.    KINGSLEY, 
WILLIAM    MARSHALL, 
HENRY    W.    SLOCUM, 
JAMES    S.  T.    STRANAHAN, 
ALFRED    C.   BARNES, 
ALDEN    S.    SWAN, 
OTTO    WITTE, 
JAMES    HOWELL, 
SETH    LOW,   Mayor, 

Ex-ojfficio. 

AARON    BRINKERHOFF,  Comp., 
Ex-ojfficio. 


JOHN    T.   AGNEW,  Chairman    Executive  Committee. 


OFFICERS, 

WILLIAM    C.   KINGSLEY,   President. 

J.   ADRIANCE    BUSH,  Viee-Pres.  OTTO    WITTE,  Treasurer. 

ORESTES    P.   QUINTARD,   Secretary. 


CHIEF    ENGINEER, 

WASHINGTON    A.    ROEBLING. 


ASSISTANT    ENGINEERS, 


CHARLES    C.    MARTIN, 
FRANCIS    COLLINGWOOD, 
SAMUEL    R.    PROBASCO, 


WILLIAM    H.    PAINE, 
GEORGE    W.    MeNULTY, 
WILHELM    HILDENBRAND. 


M99745 


PROGRAMME  OF  EXERCISES, 


1,  MUSIC- 

23d     REGIMENT     BAND. 

2,  PRAYER— 

Rt.    Rev.    BISHOP     LITTLEJOHN. 

3,  PRESENTATION   ADDRESS- 

On  behalf  of  Trustees, 
WILLIAM     C.    KINGSLEY,   Vice-President. 

4,  ACCEPTANCE    AECRESS- 

On  behalf  of  the  City  of  Brooklyn, 
Hon.    SETH     LOW,    Mayor. 

5,  ACCEPTANCE    ADDRESS— 

On  behalf  of  the  City  of  New  York, 
Hon.    FRANKLIN     EDSON,    Mayor. 

CORNET   SOLD— 

Mr.    J.    LEVY. 

B,  DRATIDN- 

Hon.    ABRAM     S.    HEWITT. 

7,   DRATION- 

Rev.    RICHARD     S.    STORRS,    D.  D. 

B,  MUSIC- 

7th     REGIMENT     BAND. 


Han,  JAMES    S,  T,  STRANAHAN  will  preside, 


INTRODUCTORY. 


The  New  York  and  Brooklyn  Bridge  was  for- 
mally opened  on  Thursday,  May  24th,  1883, 
with  befitting  pomp  and  ceremonial,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  largest  multitude  that  ever  gathered 
In  the  two  cities.  From  the  announcement  by  the 
Trustees  of  the  date  which  was  to  mark  the 
turning-over  of  the  work  to  the  public,  it  was 
evident  that  the  popular  demonstration  would 
be  upon  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  magnifi- 
cence of  the  structure  and  its  importance  to  the 
people  of  the  United  States.  The  evidences  of 
widespread  and  profound  interest  in  the  event 
were  early  and  unmistakable.  They  were  not 
confined  to  the  metropolis  and  its  sister  city  on 
the  Long  Island  shore,  nor  yet  to  the  majestic 
Empire  State.  The  occurrence  was  recognized 
as  one  of  National  importance  ;  and  throughout 

jctier  Free  Library, 


8 

the  Union^  /rom  the  rocky  headlands  of  Maine 
golo.em  sj>ores  of  the  Pacific,  and  from  the 
yatei'srof  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  vast 
expanse  of  the  Mexican  Gulf,  the  opening  cere- 
monies were  regarded  with  intelligent  concern  and 
approval.  Nearly  every  State  contributed  its  rep- 
resentatives to  the  swelling  throng  that  attended, 
while  those  who  were  unable  to  be  present  con- 
templated with  pride  and  satisfaction  the  com- 
pletion and  consecration  to  its  purpose  of  the 
greatest  engineering  work  of  modern  times. 

In  the  communities  most  directly  benefited  by 
the  Bridge  the  demonstration  was  confined  to  no 
class  or  body  of  the  populace.  It  was  a  holiday 
for  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor  ;  it  was,  in  fact, 
the  People's  Day.  More  delightful  weather  never 
dawned  upon  a  festal  morning.  The  heavens 
were  radiant  with  the  celestial  blue  of  approach- 
ing summer  ;  silvery  fragments  of  cloud  sailed 
gracefully  across  the  firmament  like  winged  mes- 
sengers, bearing  greetings  of  work  well  clone  ; 
the  clearest  of  spring  sunshine  tinged  everything 
with  a  touch  of  gold,  and  a  brisk,  bracing  breeze 
blown  up  from  the  Atlantic  cooled  the  atmosphere 


9 

to  a  healthful  and  invigorating  temperature.  The 
incoming  dawn  revealed  the  twin  cities  gorgeous 
in  gala  attire.  From  towering  steeple  and  lofty 
facade,  from  the  fronts  of  business  houses  and 
the  cornices  and  walls  of  private  dwellings,  from 
the  forests  of  shipping  along  the  wharves  and 
the  vessels  in  .the  dimpled  bay,  floated  bunting 
fashioned  in  every  conceivable  design,  while  high 
above  all,  from  the  massive  and  enduring  gran- 
ite towers  of  the  Bridge  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
signaled  to  the  world  from  the  gateway  of  the 
continent  the  arrival  of  the  auspicious  day. 

Almost  before  the  sun  was  up  the  thoroughfares 
of  both  cities  put  on  a  festival  appearance.  Busi- 
ness was  generally  suspended.  The  mercantile 
and  professional  communities  vied  with  one  an- 
other in  the  extent  and  splendor  of  their  decora- 
tions, while  from  the  hearty  voice  of  Labor  arose 
a  chorus  of  ringing  acclamation.  Tens  of  thou- 
sands of  men,  women  and  children  crowded  into 
the  streets,  and,  after  gazing  admiringly  upon  the 
decorations,  wended  their  way  in  the  direction  of 
the  mighty  river  span.  From  neighboring  cities 
and  from  the  adjacent  country  for  many  miles 


IO 

around  the  incoming  trains  brought  multitudes 
of  excursionists  and  sight-seers.  It  seemed  mar- 
velous that  they  could  all  find  accommodation, 
but  the  generous  hospitality  of  the  cities  was 
cordially  extended,  and  all  were  adequately  pro- 
vided for.  The  scenes  presented  during  the  day 
upon  the  streets  and  avenues  of  New  York- 
and  Brooklyn  will  never  be  forgotten  by  those 
who  witnessed  them.  Notwithstanding  the  enor- 
mous massing  of  people,  the  best  of  order  was 
everywhere  observable,  and  the  day  happily  was 
free  from  any  accident  of  a  serious  nature. 
The  arrangements  for  the  celebration  were  of 
a  sensible  and  becoming  character,  and  beside 
insuring  an  unobstructed  and  speedy  course  for 
the  ceremonies,  contributed  beyond  measure  to 
the  popular  enjoyment. 

Early  in  the  afternoon  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  Gen.  Chester  A.  Arthur,  and  the 
Hon.  Grover  Cleveland,  Go'vernor  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  the  former  accompanied  by  the 
members  of  his  Cabinet  and  the  latter  by  the 
officers  of  his  Staff,  were  escorted  from  the 
Fifth  Avenue  Hotel  to  the  New  York  City 


1 1 

Hall,  where  they  were  joined  by  his  Honor 
Mayor  Franklin  Edson  and  the  New  York 
officials.  From  the  City  Hall  the  procession 
proceeded  to  the  New  York  Approach  to  the 
Bridge.  The  Seventh  Regiment,  N.  G.,  S.  N.  Y., 
Col.  Emmons  Clark,  commanding,  acted  as  escort 
to  the  Presidential  and  Gubernatorial  party. 
The  regimental  band,  of  75  pieces,  headed  the 
column  and  played  popular  airs  as  the  proces- 
sion moved  along  the  crowded  and  gaily  deco- 
rated thoroughfares.  At  the  New  York  Tower  a 
battalion  of  the  Fifth  United  States  Artillery, 
under  command  of  Major  Jackson,  joined  the 
escort,  and  between  the  lines  of  brilliantly  uni- 
formed troops  the  distinguished  guests  passed 
upon  the  roadway.  They  were  formally  received 
by  a  Committee  of  the  Bridge  Trustees,  headed 
by  Mr.  William  C.  Kingsley,  Vice-President  and 
acting  President  of  the  Board. 

The  arrival  at  the  New  York  Tower  was  pro- 
claimed to  the  multitudes  on  shore  by  the  thun- 
dering of  many  cannon.  Salutes  were  fired  from 
the  forts  in  the  harbor,  from  the  United  States 
Navy  Yard,  and  from  the  summit  of  Fort 


12 

Greene.  The  United  States  fleet,  consisting  of 
the  "  Tennessee,"  the  "Yantic,"  the  "  Kearsarge," 
the  "  Vandalia,"  and  the  "  Minnesota,"  Rear- 
Admiral  George  H.  Cooper,  commanding,  was 
anchored  in  the  river  below  the  Bridge  and  joined 
in  the  salute.  As  the  procession  moved  across 
the  roadway  the  yards  of  the  men-of-war  were 
manned,  and  from  the  docks  and  factories  arose 
a  tremendous  babel  of  sounds,  caused  by  the 
clanging  of  bells,  the  roaring  of  steam  whis- 
tles, and  the  cheers  of  enthusiastic  people,  while 
sounding  from  afar,  in  delightful  contrast  with 
the  clamorous  discord,  the  silver  chimes  of 
Trinity  rang  out  upon  the  river. 

In  the  ornate  iron  railway  depot  at  the  Brook- 
lyn terminus,  where  the  exercises  were  to  take 
place,  the  arrival  of  the  approaching  procession 
was  anxiously  awaited.  The  interior  was  bright 
with  tasteful  decorations,  the  prevailing  feature 
being  the  sky-blue  hangings  of  satin  bordered 
with  silver,  and  the  coats-of-arms  of  the  States 
appropriately  interspersed  amid  a  forest  of  flags. 
On  the  Brooklyn  side  the  duties  of  escort  were 
transferred  to  the  23d  Regiment,  N.  G.,  S.  N.  Y., 


13 

Colonel  Rodney  C.  Ward  commanding.  The 
regiment  appeared  upon  this  occasion  for  the 
first  time  in  their  new  State  service  uniform, 
and  performed  their  duties  most  efficiently.  The 
arrangements  for  the  procession  and  exercises 
were  under  the  direction  of  Major-General  James 
Jourdan,  commanding  the  Second  Division,  N. 
G.,  S.  N.  Y.,  who  was  ably  assisted  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Division  Staff.  The  building  was 
thronged  in  every  part.  In  the  throng  were 
many  of  the  most  conspicuous  citizens  of  New 
York  and  other  States,  including  representatives 
of  the  bench,  the  bar,  the  pulpit,  the  press, 
and  all  other  professions.  Beside  the  President 
and  his  Cabinet,  consisting  of  the  Hon.  Charles 
J.  Folger,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  ;  the  Hon. 
William  E.  Chandler,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  ; 
the  Hon.  Henry  M.  Teller,  Secretary  of  the 
Interior;  the  Hon.  Walter  Q.  Gresham,  Post- 
master-General, and  the  Hon.  Benjamin  Harris 
Brewster,  Attorney-General  ;  and  Governor 
Cleveland  and  Staff,  there  were  present  the 
Governors  of  several  States  and  the  Mayors 
of  nearly  all  the  cities  in  the  vicinity  of  the 


metropolis.  In  the  vast  assemblage  none  were 
more  conspicuous  than  the  officers  of  the  Army 
and  Navy,  who  occupied  an  entire  section  and 
attracted  general  attention. 

When  the  Presidential  party  and  their  escort 
entered  the  hall  they  were  greeted  with  enthusi- 
astic cheers.  They  occupied  seats  directly  op- 
posite the  stand  erected  for  the  orators  of  the 
day.  The  exercises  proceeded  without  delay  in 
an  orderly  manner,  and  were  appropriate  and  im- 
pressive throughout.  Music  was  furnished  during 
the  ceremonies  by  the  bands  of  the  Seventh  and 
Twenty-third  regiments.  The  Hon.  James  S.  T. 
Stranahan  presided  with  the  skill  and  dignity 
gained  during  his  long  experience  in  public  life. 
Near  him  were  the  speakers,  Mr.  William  C. 
Kingsley,  Rev.  Richard  S.  Storrs,  D.  D.,  the  Hon. 
Abram  S.  Hewitt,  Mayor  Franklin  Edson,  of  New 
York,  and  Mayor  Seth  Low,  of  Brooklyn,  together 
with  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Bridge  Trus- 
tees. Mr.  Stranahan  opened  the  ceremonies  by 
introducing  Bishop  Littlejohn,  who  wore  the 
Episcopal  robes.  The  Bishop  fervently  and  im- 
pressively made  the  opening  prayer,  the  great 


'5 

assemblage  bowing  their  heads  reverentially  dur- 
ing its  delivery.  Vice-President  Kingsley  was 
next  introduced,  and  was  received  with  hearty 
applause.  Mr.  Kingsley,  in  clear  and  distinct 
tones,  and  in  comprehensive  and  business-like 
terms,  proceeded  to  make  the  formal  speech  pre- 
senting the  Bridge  to  the  cities  of  New  York 
and  Brooklyn.  The  address  was  heard  with  care- 
ful attention,  and  upon  its  conclusion  a  round  of 
enthusiastic  applause  swept  through  the  building. 
His  Honor  Mayor  Low  followed  Mr.  Kingsley 
with  a  concise  and  appropriate  speech,  receiving 
the  structure  on  behalf  of  the  City  of  Brooklyn. 
His  address  elicited  several  demonstrations  of 
approval  from  the  audience.  The  Hon.  Frank- 
lin Edson,  Mayor  of  New  York,  who  was  the 
next  speaker,  was  heartily  applauded  as  he  aptly 
accepted  the  Bridge  in  behalf  of  the  author- 
ities of  the  great  metropolis.  When  Mr.  Hewitt 
was  introduced  as  the  orator  on  the  part  of 
New  York  City,  he  was  warmly  cheered.  His 
eloquent  address  riveted  the  attention  of  his 
hearers  from  beginning  to  end,  and  his  pointed 
and  conclusive  vindication  of  the  bridge  manage- 


:6 

ment  from  the  outset  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of 
his  hearers  to  the  utmost  pitch.  Following  Mr. 
Hewitt  came  the  Rev.  Richard  S.  Storrs,  D.  D., 
who  delivered  the  oration  on  behalf  of  Brooklyn. 
Never  did  the  distinguished  preacher  appear 
to  better  advantage,  and  his  oration,  which 
was  punctuated  with  applause,  was  characterized 
as  a  masterpiece  by  all  who  heard  it.  Upon 
the  conclusion  of  his  address  the  presiding  offi- 
cer declared  the  exercises  at  an  end,  and  the 
company  in  the  building  dispersed. 

The  festivities,  however,  did  not  end  with 
the  conclusion  of  the  formal  ceremonies.  The 
celebration  was  continued  in  both  cities  through- 
out the  day  and  far  into  the  night.  'Thous- 
ands upon  thousands  of  enthusiastic  people 
crowded  the  streets.  After  the  ceremonies,  the 
President,  the  Governor,  the  speakers  of  the 
day,  and  the  Trustees  were  driven  to  the  resi- 
dence of  Col.  Washington  A.  Roebling,  on 
Columbia  Heights,  where  a  reception  was  held. 
As  they  passed  through  the  streets  the  people 
cheered  as  people  only  can  who  cheer  in  the 
atmosphere  of  a  free  government.  From  Col. 


17 

Roebling's  house  the  company  proceeded  to  the 
residence  of  Mayor  Low,  where  they  were  enter- 
tained at  a  banquet.  In  the  evening,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Municipal  authorities,  a 
grand  reception  to  President  Arthur  and  Gov- 
ernor Cleveland  was  given  by  the  citizens  of 
Brooklyn  at  the  Academy  of  Music,  and  was 
attended  by  a  great  multitude.  Another  strik- 
ing feature  of  the  celebration  at  night  was  the 
display  of  fireworks  on  the  Bridge  given  under 
the  direction  of  the  Board  of  Trustees.  The 
pyrotechnic  exhibition  was  viewed  by  almost 
the  entire  populace  of  the  two  cities,  and  a  vast 

concourse   of    visitors   from   abroad.      The    East 

• 
River    was    fairly    blocked    with    craft    of    every 

description  bearing  legions  of  delighted  specta- 
tors, and  the  streets  and  housetops  were  packed 
with  people.  The  display  was  generally  charac- 
terized as  one  of  the  grandest  ever  witnessed  in 
America.  The  people  of  both  cities  evinced  their 
public  spirit  in  the  decorations  by  day  and  the 
illuminations  by  night.  The  illuminations  in 
Brooklyn,  particularly,  were  on  a  magnificent 
scale,  and  excited  the  admiration  of  multitudes 


i8 

of  visitors  to  the  city.  In  addition  to  the  special 
features  of  the  celebration  there  were  many 
entertainments  in  honor  of  the  event,  including 
concerts  in  the  various  city  parks.  Through- 
out the  afternoon  and  evening  the  best  of  order 
was  preserved  ;  the  casualties  that  occurred 
were  few  and  unimportant,  and  the  auspicious 
day  ended  without  the  intrusion  of  anything 
that  would  carry  with  it  other  than  pleasant 
memories  of  the  significant  event  which  it  com- 
memorated. 


ORDER  OF  RELIGIOUS  SERVICES, 


CONDUCTED  BY  RT.  REV.  A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN,  D.  D. 


The  eternal  God  is  thy  refuge,  and  underneath 
are  the  everlasting  arms.  Deut.  xxxiii. :  27. 

Know  therefore  that  the  Lord  thy  God,  He  is 
God,  the  faithful  God,  which  keepeth  covenant  and 
mercy  with  them  that  love  Him  and  keep  His  com- 
mandments to  a  thousand  generations.  Deut.  vii. :  9. 

Remember  the  marvelous  works  that  He  hath 
done :  His  wonders,  and  the  judgments  of  his 
mouth.  Psalm  cv. :  5. 

Marvelous  things  did  He  in  the  sight  of  our 
forefathers,  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  even  in  the  field 
of  Zoan. 

He  divided  the  sea,  and  let  them  go  through  : 
He  made  the  waters  to  stand  on  an  heap. 

In  the  day  time  also  He  led  them  with  a  cloud, 
and  all  the  night  through  with  a  light  of  fire. 
Psalm  Ixxviii.  :  13,  14,  15. 


2O 

Oh,  that  men  would  therefore  praise  the  Lord  for 
His  goodness  and  declare  the  wonders  that  He  doeth 
for  the  children  of  men.  Psalm  cvii.  :  21. 

The  Lord  hath  been  mindful  of  us,  and  He  shall 
bless  us;  He  shall  bless  them  that  fear  the  Lord, 
both  small  and  great.  Psalm  cxv. :  12,  13. 

Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son,  and  to 
the  Holy  Ghost  : 

As  it  was  in  the  beginning,  is  now,  and  ever  shall 
be,  world  without  end. 

Praise  ye  the  Lord  : 

The  Lord's   name   be   praised. 


PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  who  hast  in  all  ages  showed 
forth  Thy  power  and  mercy  in  the  preservation 
and  advancement  of  the  race  redeemed  by 
the  precious  blood  of  Thy  dear  Son  :  we  yield 
Thee  our  unfeigned  thanks  and  praise  as  for  all 
Thy  public  mercies,  so  especially  for  the  signal 
manifestation  of  Thy  Providence  which  we  com- 
memorate this  day.  All  things  —  wealth,  indus- 
try, energy,  skill,  genius  —  come  of  Thee;  and 
when  we  consecrate  their  triumphs  unto  Thee, 


21 

we  give  Thee  but  Thine  own.  Enable  us 
to  see  in  the  strength  and  grandeur  of  this 
structure  the  evident  tokens  of  Thy  power, 
bringing  mighty  things  to  pass  through  the 
weakness  of  Thy  creatures.  Give  us  grace  and 
wisdom  to  discern  in  all  this  work  the  nobler 
uses  it  was  ordained  by  Thee  to  subserve. 
Teach  us  to  know  that  all  this  mighty  fabric 
is  but  vanity,  save  as  it  shall  promote  Thy 
sovereign  purpose  toward  the  sons  of  men. 
O  Lord  God,  clothed  with  majesty  and  honor, 
decking  Thyself  with  light  as  with  a  garment, 
and  spreading  out  the  heavens  like  a  curtain, 
with  the  beams  of  Thy  chambers  in  the 
waters,  and  the  clouds  for  Thy  chariot,  walking 
upon  the  wings  of  the  wind,  Thy  messen- 
gers spirits  and  Thy  ministers  a  flaming  fire, 
accept,  we  beseech  Thee,  this  last  and  chiefest 
fruit  of  human  toil  and  genius  as  a  tribute  to 
Thy  glory,  and  a  new  power  making  for 
righteousness  and  peace  amid  all  conflicts  of 
earthly  interests,  and  all  the  stir  and  pomp  of 
worldly  aggrandizement.  Our  life  is  a  thing 
of  nought,  and  our  purposes  vanish  away ;  but 


22 

Thy  years  shall  not  fail,  and  with  Thee  the 
beginning  and  the  end  are  the  same.  There- 
fore we  implore  Thee  to  bless  and  direct  this 
work,  that  it  shall  be  more  than  a  highway  for 
the  things  that  perish,  even  a  path  of  Thy 
eternal  Spirit  lifting  by  His  own  infinite  grace, 
more  and  more,  as  the  years  roll  on,  the  peo- 
ple of  these  cities  toward  the  plane  of  Thine 
own  life — the  life  of  endless  peace,  of  absolute 
unity,  and  perfect  love,  through  Jesus  Christ, 
the  one  Redeemer  and  Mediator  between  God 
and  man.  Amen. 


ADDRESS  OF  WM.  C.  KINGSLEY, 


PRESIDENT  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES. 


In  the  presence  of  this  great  assemblage,  and 
of  the  chosen  representatives  of  the  people  of 
these  two  great  cities,  of  the  Governor  of  the 
State  of  New  York  and  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  pleasing  duty  devolves  upon 
me,  as  the  official  agent  of  the  Board  of  Trus- 
tees of  the  New  York  and  Brooklyn  Bridge,  to 
announce  formally  to  the  chief  magistrates  of 
these  two  municipalities  that  this  Bridge  is  now 
ready  to  be  opened  for  public  use,  and  is  sub- 
ject in  its  control  and  management  only  to  such 
restrictions  as  the  people,  to  whom  it  belongs, 
may  choose  to  impose  upon  themselves.  If  I 
were  at  liberty  to  consult  my  own  wishes  I 
should  not  attempt  to  occupy  your  attention  any 
further.  I  am  not  here  as  the  spokesman  of 


24 

my  associates  in  the  Board  of  Bridge  Trustees. 
They  are  well  content  to  let  this  great  structure 
speak  for  them,  and  to  speak  more  fittingly  and 
more  eloquently  yet  for  the  skillful,  faithful  and 
daring  men  who  have  given  so  many  years  of 
their  lives — and  in  several  instances  even  their 
lives  —  to  the  end  that  the  natural  barrier  to 
the  union,  growth  and  greatness  of  this  great 
commercial  centre  should  be  removed,  and  that 
a  vast  scientific  conception  should  be  matched 
in  the  skill,  and  courage,  and  endurance  upon 
which  it  depended  for  its  realization.  With  one 
name,  in  an  especial  sense,  this  Bridge  will 
always  be  associated — that  of  Roebling.  At  the 
outset  of  this  enterprise  we  were  so  fortunate 
as  to  be  able  to  secure  the  services  of  the  late 
John  A.  Roebling,  who  had  built  the  chief  sus- 
pension bridges  in  this  country,  and  who  had 
just  then  completed  the  largest  suspension  bridge 
ever  constructed  up  to  that  time.  His  name  and 
achievements  were  of  invaluable  service  to  this 
enterprise  in  its  infancy.  They  secured  for  it  a 
confidence  not  otherwise  obtainable.  He  entered 
promptly  and  with  more  than  professional  zeal 


25 

into  the  work  of  erecting  a  bridge  over  the  East 
River.  As  is  universally  known,  while  testing 
and  perfecting  his  surveys  his  foot  was  crushed 
between  the  planks  of  one  of  our  piers  ;  lockjaw 
supervened,  and  the  man  who  designed  this 
Bridge  lost  his  life  in  its  service.  The  main 
designs  were,  however,  completed  by  the  elder 
Roebling  before  he  met  his  sad  and  untimely 
death.  He  was  succeeded  at  once  by  his  son, 
Colonel  Washington  A.  Roebling,  who  had  for 
years  before  shared  in  his  father's  professional 
confidences  and  labors.  Here  the  son  did  not 
succeed  the  father  by  inheritance  merely.  The 
elder  Roebling,  according  to  his  own  statements, 
would  not  have  undertaken  the  conduct  of  this 
work  at  his  age — and  he  was  independent  of 
mere  professional  gain — if  it  were  not  for  the 
fact,  as  he  frequently  stated,  that  he  had  a  son 
who  was  entirely  capable  of  building  this  Bridge. 
Indeed,  the  elder  Roebling  advised  that  the  son, 
who  was  destined  to  carry  on  and  complete  the 
work,  should  be  placed  in  chief  authority  at  the 
beginning.  The  turning  point — as  determining 
the  feasibility  of  this  enterprise — was  reached 


26 

down  in  the  earth,  and  under  the  bed  of  the 
East  River.  During  the  anxious  days  and  nights 
while  work  was  going  on  within  the  caissons, 
Colonel  Roebling  seemed  to  be  always  on  hand, 
at  the  head  of  his  men,  to  direct  their  efforts, 
and  to  guard  against  a  mishap  or  a  mistake 
which,  at  this  stage  of  the  work,  might  have 
proved  to  be  disastrous.  The  foundations  of  the 
towers  were  successfully  laid,  and  the  problem  of 
the  feasibility  of  the  Bridge  was  solved'.  Colonel 
Roebling  contracted  the  mysterious  disease  in 
the  caissons  which  had  proved  fatal  to  several 
of  the  workmen  in  our  employ.  For  many  long 
and  weary  years  this  man,  who  entered  our  ser- 
vice young, and  full  of  life,  and  hope,  and  daring, 
has  been  an  invalid  and  confined  to  his  home. 
He  has  never  seen  this  structure  as  it  now 
stands,  save  from  a  distance.  But  the  disease, 
which  has  shattered  his  nervous  system  for  the 
time,  seemed  not  to  have  enfeebled  his  mind.  It 
appeared  even  to  quicken  his  intellect.  His  phys- 
ical infirmities  shut  him  out,  so  to  speak,  from 
the  world,  and  left  him  dependent  largely  on  the 
society  of  his  family,  but  it  gave  him  for  a  com- 


27 

panion  day  and  night  this  darling  child  of  his  gen- 
ius— every  step  of  whose  progress  he  has  directed 
and  watched  over  with  paternal  solicitude.  Col- 
onel Roebling  may  never  walk  across  this  Bridge, 
as  so  many  of  his  fellow-men  have  done  to-day, 
but  while  this  structure  stands  he  will  make  all 
who  use  it  his  debtor.  His  infirmities  are  still 
such  that  he  who  would  be  the  centre  of  inter- 
est on  this  occasion,  and  even  in  this  greatly 
distinguished  company,  is  conspicuous  by  his 
absence.  This  enterprise  was  only  less  fortunate 
in  securing  an  executive  head  than  in  obtaining 
scientific  direction.  For  sixteen  years  together 
the  late  Hon.  Henry  C.  Murphy  stood  for  this 
work  wherever  it  challenged  the  enmity  of  an 
opponent  or  needed  an  advocate,  a  supporter 
and  a  friend.  He  devised  the  legislation  under 
which  it  was  commenced.  He  staked  in  its 
inception  a  large  portion  of  his  private  fortune 
on  its  success.  He  upheld  its  feasibility  and 
utility  before  committees,  and  legislatures,  and 
law  courts,  and  in  every  forum  of  public  discus- 
sion. For  years  he  looked  forward  to  this  day 
to  fittingly  close  the  activities  of  a  long,  useful 


28 

and,  in  many  respects,  an  illustrious  career.  It 
was  not  permitted  him  to  see  it,  but  he  saw 
very  near  the  end,  and  he  lived  long  enough  to 
realize,  what  is  now  admitted,  that  he  was  to 
the  end  of  his  days  engaged  in  a  work  from 
which  the  name  of  the  city  he  loved  so  well  will 
never  be  disassociated,  for  it  is  a  work  the  his- 
tory of  which  will  for  all  time  be  embraced  in 
the  records  of  the  achievements  of  American 
enterprise  and  of  American  genius.  I  am  sure  I 
speak  for  the  Board  of  Trustees  in  returning 
their  thanks  to  all  the  professional  gentlemen 
who  have  been  in  our  employ — and  especially 
to  Messrs.  Martin,  Paine,  Farrington,  McNulty 
and  Probasco.  For  the  most  part  these  men 
have  been  engaged  on  the  Bridge  from  its  com- 
mencement to  its  completion.  It  has  always 
seemed  to  the  Trustees  as  if  the  highest  and  the 
humblest  workmen  engaged  on  this  work  were 
alike  influenced  by  the  spirit  of  enterprise  in 
which  the  Bridge  had  its  origin.  Men  whose 
daily  compensation  was  not  more  than  sufficient 
to  provide  them  and  their  families  with  their 
daily  bread  were  at  all  times  ready  to  take  their 


29 

lives  in  their  hands  in  the  performance  of  the 
imperative  and  perilous  duties  assigned  them. 
In  the  direct  prosecution  of  the  work  twenty 
men  lost  their  lives.  Peace  hath  its  victories, 
and  it  has  its  victims  and  its  martyrs,  too.  Of 
the  seven  consulting  engineers  to  whom  the  ma- 
tured plans  of  the  elder  Roebling  were  submit- 
ted— all  men  of  the  highest  eminence  in  their 
profession — three  have  passed  away,  and  four 
are  living  to  witness,  in  the  assured  success  of 
this  structure,  the  one  ratification  of  their  judg- 
ment which  cannot  be  questioned. 

It  remains  for  me  to  say,  in  conclusion,  that 
the  two  cities  rose  at  all  times  to  the  level  of 
the  spirit  of  our  time  and  country.  Their  citi- 
zens staked  millions  on  what  seemed  to  many 
to  be  an  experiment — a  structure,  it  was  often 
said,  that  at  its  best  would  not  be  of  any  actual 
use.  How  solid  it  is  ;  how  far  removed  it  is  from 
all  sense  of  apprehension  ;  how  severely  practical 
it  is  in  all  its  relations,  and  how  great  a  factor 
in  the  corporate  lives  of  these  cities  it  is  destined 
to  be,  we  all  now  realize.  This  Bridge  has  cost 
many  millions  of  dollars,  and  it  has  taken  many 


30 

years  to  build  it.  May  I  say  on  this  occasion 
that  the  people  whom  you  represent  (turning  to 
where  the  Mayors  of  the  two  cities  stood  to- 
gether) would  not  part  with  the  Bridge  to-day 
for  even  twice  or  thrice  its  cost  ?  And  may 
I  remind  those  who,  not  unnaturally,  perhaps, 
have  been  disappointed  and  irritated  by  delays 
in  the  past,  that  those  who  enter  a  race  with 
Time  for  a  competitor  have  an  antagonist  that 
makes  no  mistakes,  is  subject  to  no  interference 
and  liable  to  no  accident. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  SETH  Low, 


MAYOR  OF  THE  CITY  OF  BROOKLYN. 


GENTLEMEN  OF  THE  TRUSTEES — With  profound 
satisfaction,  on  behalf  of  the  City  of  Brooklyn, 
I  accept  the  completed  Bridge.  Fourteen  times 
the  earth  has  made  its  great  march  through  the 
heavens  since  the  work  began.  The  vicissitudes 
of  fourteen  years  have  tried  the  courage  and  the 
faith  of  engineers  and  of  people.  At  last  we 
all  rejoice  in  the  signal  triumph.  The  beautiful 
and  stately  structure  fulfills  the  fondest  hope. 
It  will  be  a  source  of  pleasure  to-day  to  every 
citizen  that  no  other  name  is  associated  with 
the  end  than  that  which  has  directed  the  work 
from  the  beginning  —  the  name  of  Roebling. 
With  all  my  heart  I  give  to  him  who  bears 
it  now  the  city's  acknowledgment  and  thanks. 

Fourteen   years    ago   a  city   of    400,000    people 


32 

on  this  side  of  the  river  heard  of  a  projected 
suspension  bridge  with  incredulity.  The  span 
was  so  long,  the  height  so  great,  and  the  enter- 
prise likely  to  be  so  costly,  that  few  thought 
of  it  as  something  begun  in  earnest.  The  irre- 
sistible demands  of  commerce  enforced  these  hard 
conditions.  But  Science  said,  "  It  is  possible," 
and  Courage  said,  "  It  shall  be!"  To-day  a  city 
of  600,000  people  welcomes  with  enthusiasm 
the  wonderful  creation  of  genius.  Graceful,  and 
yet  majestic,  it  clings  to  the  land  like  a  thing 
that  has  taken  root.  Beautiful  as  a  vision 
of  fairyland  it  salutes  our  sight.  The  impres- 
sion it  makes  upon  the  visitor  is  one  of  aston- 
ishment, an  astonishment  that  grows  with  every 
visit.  No  one  who  has  been  upon  it  can  ever 
forget  it.  This  great  structure  cannot  be  con- 
fined to  the  limits  of  local  pride.  The  glory  of 
it  belongs  to  the  race.  Not  one  shall  see  it 
and  not  feel  prouder  to  be  a  man. 

And  yet  it  is  distinctly  an  American  triumph. 
American  genius  designed  it,  American  skill  built 
it,  and  American  workshops  made  it.  About 
1837  the  Screw  Dock  across  the  river,  then 


33 

known  as  the  Hydrostatic  Lifting  Dock,  was 
built.  In  order  to  construct  it  the  Americans 
of  that  day  were  obliged  to  have  the  cylinders 
cast  in  England.  What  a  stride  from  1837  to 
1883 — from  the  Hydrostatic  Dock  to  the  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  Bridge ! 

And  so  this  Bridge  is  a  wonder  of  science. 
But  in  no  less  degree  it  is  a  triumph  of  faith. 
I  speak  not  now  of  the  courage  of  those  who 
projected  it.  Except  for  the  faith  which  re- 
moves mountains  yonder  river  could  not  have 
been  spanned  by  this  Bridge.  It  is  true  that 
the  material  which  has  gone  into  it  has  been 
paid  for;  the  labor  which  has  been  spent  upon 
it  has  received  its  hire.  But  the  money  which 
did  these  things  was  not  the  money  of  those 
who  o\vn  the  Bridge.  The  money  was  lent  to 
them  on  the  faith  that  these  two  great  cities 
would  redeem  their  bond.  So  have  the  Alps 
been  tunneled  in  our  day ;  while  the  ancient 
prophecy  has  been  fulfilled  that  faith  should 
remove  mountains.  We  justify  this  faith  in  us  as 
we  pay  for  the  Bridge  by  redeeming  the  bond. 

In     the    course    of    the     construction    of    the 
3 


34 

Bridge  a  number  of  lives  have  been  lost.  Does 
it  not  sometimes  seem  as  though  every  work 
of  enduring  value,  in  the  material  as  in  the 
moral  world,  must  needs  be  purchased  at  the 
cost  of  human  life  ?  Let  us  recall  with  kind- 
ness at  this  hour  the  work  of  those  who 
labored  here  faithfully  unto  the  death,  no  less 
than  of  that  great  army  of  men  who  have 
wrought,  year  in  and  year  out,  to  execute  the 
great  design.  Let  us  give  our  meed  of  praise 
to-day  to  the  humblest  workman  who  has  here 
done  his  duty  well,  no  less  than  to  the  great 
engineer  who  told  him  what  to  do. 

The  importance  of  this  Bridge  in  its  far- 
reaching  effects  at  once  entices  and  baffles  the 
imagination.  At  either  end  of  the  Bridge  lies 
a  great  city — cities  full  of  vigorous  life.  The 
activities  and  the  energies  of  each  flow  over  into 
the  other.  The  electric  current  has  conveyed 
unchecked  between  the  two  the  interchanging 
thoughts,  but  the  rapid  river  has  ever  bidden 
halt  to  the  foot  of  man.  It  is  as  though  the 
population  of  these  cities  had  been  brought 
down  to  the  river-side,  year  after  year,  there  to 


35 

be  taught  patience  ;  and  as  though,  in  this 
Bridge,  after  these  many  years,  patience  had 
had  her  perfect  work.  The  ardent  merchant, 
the  busy  lawyer,  the  impatient  traveler  —  all, 
without  distinction  and  without  exception  —  at 
the  river  have  been  told  to  wait.  No  one  can 
compute  the  loss  of  time  ensuing  daily  from 
delays  at  the  ferries  to  the  multitudes  crossing 
the  stream.  And  time  is  not  only  money  — 
it  is  opportunity.  Brooklyn  becomes  available, 
henceforth,  as  a  place  of  residence  to  thousands, 
to  whom  the  ability  to  reach  their  places  of 
business  without  interruption  from  fog  and  ice 
is  of  paramount  importance.  To  all  Brooklyn's 
present  citizens  a  distinct  boon  is  given.  The 
certainty  of  communication  with  New  York 
afforded  by  the  Bridge  is  the  fundamental  ben- 
efit it  confers.  Incident  to  this  is  the  oppor- 
tunity it  gives  for  rapid  communication. 

As  the  water  of  the  lakes  found  the  salt  sea 
when  the  Erie  Canal  was  opened,  so  surely 
will  quick  communication  seek  and  find  this 
noble  Bridge,  and  as  the  ships  have  carried 
hither  and  thither  the  products  of  the  mighty 


36 

West,  so  shall  diverging  railroads  transport  the 
people  swiftly  to  their  homes  in  the  hospitable 
city  of  Brooklyn.  The  Erie  Canal  is  a  water- 
way through  the  land  connecting  the  great 
West  with  the  older  East.  This  Bridge  is  a 
landway  over  the  water,  connecting  two  cities 
bearing  to  each  other  relations  in  some  respects 
similar.  It  is  the  function  of  such  works  to 
bless  "  both  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes." 
The  development  of  the  West  has  not  belittled, 
but  has  enlarged  New  York,  and  Brooklyn  will 
grow  by  reason  of  this  Bridge,  not  at  New 
York's  expense,  but  to  her  permanent  advan- 
tage. The  Brooklyn  of  1900  can  hardly  be 
guessed  at  from  the  city  of  to-day.  The  hand 
of  Time  is  a  mighty  hand.  To  those  who  are 
privileged  to  live  in  sight  of  this  noble  struc- 
ture every  line  of  it  should  be  eloquent  with 
inspiration.  Courage,  enterprise,  skill,  faith,  en- 
durance—  these  are  the  qualities  which  have 
made  the  great  Bridge,  and  these  are  the  quali- 
ties which  will  make  our  city  great  and  our 
people  great.  God  grant  they  never  may  be 
lacking  in  our  midst.  Gentlemen  of  the  Trus- 


37 

tees,  in  accepting  the  Bridge  at  your  hands,  I 
thank  you  warmly  in  Brooklyn's  name  for  your 
manifold  and  arduous  labors. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON,  FRANKLIN  EDSON, 


MAYOR  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 


MR.  PRESIDENT — On  behalf  of  the  City  of  New 
York,  I  accept  the  great  work  which  you  now 
tender  as  ready  for  the  public  use  of  the  two 
cities  which  it  so  substantially  and,  at  the  same 
time,  so  gracefully  joins  together. 

The  City  of  New  York  joyfully  unites  with 
the  City  of  Brooklyn  in  extending  to  you,  sir, 
and  to  those  who  have  been  associated  with  you, 
sincere  congratulations  upon  the  successful  com- 
pletion of  this  grand  highway,  establishing,  as  it 
does,  an  enduring  alliance  between  these  two 
great  cities.  Through  the  wisdom,  energy,  zeal 
and  patience  of  yourself  and  your  co-laborers  in 
this  vast  enterprise,  we  are  enabled  this  day  to 
recognize  the  fact  that  a  common  and  unbroken 
current  flows  through  the  veins  of  these  two 


39 

cities,  which  must  add  in  no  small  degree  to  the 
strength,  healthful  growth  and  prosperity  of  both, 
and  we  believe  that  what  has  thus  been  joined 
together  shall  never  be  put  asunder. 

When,  more  than  fifteen  years  ago,  you,  Mr. 
President,  foresaw  the  advantages  that  would 
surely  accrue  to  these  cities  from  the  establish- 
ment of  such  a  means  of  communication  between 
them,  few  could  be  found  to  look  upon  such 
advantages  as  other  than,  at  best,  problematical. 
To-day,  however,  they  are  recognized,  and  so 
fully,  that  before  this  Bridge  was  completed  the 
building  of  another  not  far  distant  had  begun  to 
be  seriously  considered. 

It  was  forty  years  after  the  vast  advantages 
of  water  communication  between  the  Hudson  and 
the  great  lakes  had  dawned  upon  the  mind  of 
Washington,  in  the  course  of  a  tour  through 
the  valley  of  the  Mohawk,  that  such  a  work 
came  to  be  appreciated  by  the  people,  and 
resulted  in  that  grand  artery  of  wealth  to  our 
State,  the  Erie  Canal.  So  I  believe  it  has  ever 
been  in  the  past  with  the  initiation  and  con- 
struction of  great  public  works,  and  with  the 


40 

introduction  of  agencies  and  methods  which  have 
been  of  the  greatest  benefit  to  mankind  through- 
out the  world,  and  so  perhaps  it  will  ever  be. 
Yet,  for  the  welfare  of  these  two  cities,  let  us 
venture  the  hope  that  the  tide  of  improvement 
and  of  active  preparation  is  setting  in,  for  it 
behooves  us  more  than  most  are  aware  to  be 
forecasting  our  future  necessities,  and  to  recog- 
nize the  fact  that 

There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  cities , 

Which,  taken  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune. 

It  is  not  difficult  for  most  of  us  to  look  back 
twenty-five  years  and  see  clearly  the  wonderful 
strides  which  have  been  made  in  population, 
commerce,  manufacturing  and  financial  interests, 
and  in  all  the  industries  which  help  to  make 
great  and  prosperous  communities ;  nor  is  it  dif- 
ficult to  trace  the  wonders  that  have  been 
wrought  through  the  agencies  of  steam  and 
electricity  within  those  years.  But  to  look  for- 
ward twenty-five  years  and  attempt  to  discern 
the  condition  of  things  in  this  metropolis,  if  they 
shall  continue  to  move  forward  on  the  same 
scale  of  progress,  is  an  undertaking  that  few 


can  grasp.  No  one  dares  accept  the  possibilities 
that  are  forced  upon  the  mind  in  the  course  of 
its  contemplation.  Will  these  two  cities  ere  then 
have  been  consolidated  into  one  great  munici- 
pality, numbering  within  its  limits  more  than  five 
millions  of  people?  Will  the  right  of  self-gov- 
ernment have  been  accorded  to  the  great  city, 
thus  united,  and  will  her  people  have  learned 
how  best  to  exercise  that  right?  Will  the  pro- 
gress of  improvement  and  the  preparation  for 
commerce,  manufactories  and  trade,  and  for  the 
comforts  of  home  for  poor  and  rich,  have  kept 
pace  with  the  demand  in  the  great  and  grow- 
ing city  ?  Will  the  establishment  of  life-giving 
parks,  embellished  with  appropriate  fountains  and 
statues  and  with  the  numberless  graces  of  art, 
which  at  once  gladden  the  eye  and  raise  the 
standard  of  civilization,  have  kept  abreast  with 
its  growth  in  wealth  and  numbers  ? 

These  are  but  few  of  the  pertinent  questions 
which  must  be  answered  by  the  zealous  and  hon- 
est acts  of  the  generation  of  men  already  in 
active  life.  Here  are  the  possibilities  ;  all  the 
elements  and  conditions  are  here ;  but  the 


42 

results  must  depend  upon  the  wisdom  and  patri- 
otism and  energy  of  those  who  shall  lead  in 
public  affairs.  May  they  be  clothed  with  a  spirit 
of  wisdom  and  knowledge  akin  to  that  which 
inspired  those  who  conceived  and  executed  the 
great  work  which  we  receive  at  your  hands  and 
dedicate  to-day. 


ADDRESS  OF  HON.  ABRAM  S.  HEWITT, 


Two  hundred  and  seventy  years  ago  the 
good  ship  "  Tiger,"  commanded  by  Captain 
Adraien  Block,  was  burned  to  the  water's  edge, 
as  she  lay  at  anchor,  just  off  the  southern  end 
of  Manhattan  Island.  Her  crew,  thus  forced 
into  winter  quarters,  were  the  first  white  men 
who  built  and  occupied  a  house  on  the  land 
where  New  York  now  stands  ;  "  then,"  to  quote 
the  graphic  language  of  Mrs.  Lamb,  in  her  his- 
tory of  the  City,  "  in  primeval  solitude,  waiting 
till  commerce  should  come  and  claim  its  own. 
Nature  wore  a  hardy  countenance,  as  wild  and 
as  untamed  as  the  savage  landholders.  Man- 
hattan's twenty-two  thousand  acres  of  rock,  lake 
and  rolling  table  land,  rising  at  places  to  a 
height  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  feet, 


44 

were  covered  with  sombre  forests,  grassy  knolls 
and  dismal  swamps.  The  trees  were  lofty ;  and 
old,  decayed  and  withered  limbs  contrasted  with 
the  younger  growth  of  branches  ;  and  wild 
flowers  wasted  their  sweetness  among  the  dead 
leaves  and  uncut  herbage  at  their  roots.  The 
wanton  grapevine  swung  carelessly  from  the 
topmost  boughs  of  the  oak  and  the  sycamore ; 
and  blackberry  and  raspberry  bushes,  like  a 
picket  guard,  presented  a  bold  front  in  all  pos- 
sible avenues  of  approach.  The  entire  surface 
of  the  island  was  bold  and  granitic,  and  in 
profile  resembled  the  cartilaginous  back  of  the 
sturgeon." 

This  primeval  scene  was  the  product  of  nat- 
ural forces  working  through  uncounted  periods 
of  time  ;  the  continent  slowly  rising  and  falling 
in  the  sea  like  the  heaving  breast  of  a  world 
asleep  ;  glaciers  carving  patiently  through  ages 
the  deep  estuaries  ;  seasons  innumerable  cloth- 
ing the  hills  with  alternate  bloom  and  decay. 

The  same  sun  shines  to-day  upon  the  same 
earth  ;  yet  how  transformed  !  Could  there  be  a 
more  astounding  exhibition  of  the  power  of 


45 

man  to  change  the  face  of  nature  than  the 
panoramic  view  which  presents  itself  to  the 
spectator  standing  upon  the  crowning  arch  of 
the  Bridge,  whose  completion  we  are  here  to- 
day to  celebrate  in  the  honored  presence  of 
the  President  of  the  United  States,  with  their 
fifty  millions  ;  of  the  Governor  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  with  its  five  millions  ;  and  of  the 
Mayors  of  the  two  cities,  aggregating  over  two 
millions  of  inhabitants  ?  In  the  place  of  still- 
ness and  solitude,  the  footsteps  of  these  mil- 
lions of  human  beings  ;  instead  of  the  smooth 
waters  "  unvexed  by  any  keel,"  highways  of  com- 
merce ablaze  with  the  flags  of  all  the  nations  ; 
and  where  once  was  the  green  monotony  of 
forested  hills,  the  piled  and  towering  splendors 
of  a  vast  metropolis,  the  countless  homes  of 
industry,  the  echoing  marts  of  trade,  the  gor- 
geous palaces  of  luxury,  the  silent  and  stead- 
fast spires  of  worship  ! 

To  crown  all,  the  work  of  separation  wrought 
so  surely,  yet  so  slowly,  by  the  hand  of  Time, 
is  now  reversed  in  our  own  day,  and  "  Mana- 
hatta  "  and  "  Seawanhaka  "  are  joined  again,  as 


46 

once   they  were   before   the   dawn   of    life    in   the 
far   azoic   ages. 

"  It  is  done  ! 

Clang  of   bell  and  roar  of   gun 
Send  the  tidings  up  and  down. 

How  the  belfries  rock  and  reel ! 

How  the  great  guns,  peal  on  peal, 
Fling  the   joy  from  town  to  town  !  " 

"  What  hath  God  wrought  !  "  were  the  words 
of  wonder,  which  ushered  into  being  the  mag- 
netic telegraph,  the  greatest  marvel  of  the 
many  marvelous  inventions  of  the  present  cen- 
tury. It  was  the  natural  impulse  of  the  pious 
maiden  who  chose  this  first  message  of  rever- 
ence and  awe,  to  look  to  the  Divine  Power  as 
the  author  of  a  new  gospel.  For  it  was  the 
invisible,  and  not  the  visible  agency,  which  ad- 
dressed itself  to  her  perceptions.  Neither  the 
bare  poles,  nor  the  slender  wire,  nor  the  silent 
battery,  could  suggest  an  adequate  explanation 
of  the  extinction  of  time  and  space  which  was 
manifest  to  her  senses,  and  she  could  only  say, 
"What  hath  God  wrought!" 

But  when  we  turn  from  the  unsightly  tele- 
graph to  the  graceful  structure  at  whose  portal 


47 

we  stand,  and  when  the  airy  outline  of  its  curves 
of  beauty,  pendant  between  massive  towers 
suggestive  of  art  alone,  is  contrasted  with  the 
over-reaching  vault  of  heaven  above  and  the 
ever-moving  flood  of  waters  beneath,  the  work  of 
omnipotent  power,  we  are  irresistibly  moved  to 
exclaim,  "  What  hath  man  wrought  ! " 

Man  hath,  indeed,  wrought  far  more  than 
strikes  the  eye  in  this  daring  undertaking,  by 
the  general  judgment  of  engineers,  without  a 
rival  among  the  wonders  of  human  skill.  It  is 
not  the  work  of  any  one  man  or  of  any  one 
age.  It  is  the  result  of  the  study,  of  the  expe- 
rience, and  of  the  knowledge  of  many  men  in 
many  ages.  It  is  not  merely  a  creation — it  is 
a  growth.  It  stands  before  us  to-day  as  the 
sum  and  epitome  of  human  knowledge ;  as  the 
very  heir  of  the  ages ;  as  the  latest  glory  of 
centuries  of  patient  observation,  profound  study 
and  accumulated  skill,  gained,  step  by  step,  in 
the  never-ending  struggle  of  man  to  subdue 
the  forces  of  nature  to  his  control  and  use. 

In  no  previous  period  of  the  world's  history 
could  this  Bridge  have  been  built.  Within  the 


48 

last  hundred  years  the  greater  part  of  the  knowl- 
edge necessary  for  its  erection  has  been  gained. 
Chemistry  was  not  born  until  1776,  the  year 
when  political  economy  was  ushered  into  the 
world  by  Adam  Smith,  and  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  proclaimed  by  the  Continental 
Congress,  to  be  maintained  at  the  point  of  the 
sword  by  George  Washington.  In  the  same 
year  Watt  produced  his  successful  steam  engine, 
and  a  century  has  not  elapsed  since  the  first 
specimen  of  his  skill  was  erected  on  this  conti- 
nent. The  law  of  gravitation  was  indeed  known 
a  hundred  years  ago,  but  the  intricate  laws  of 
force,  which  now  control  the  domain  of  industry, 
had  not  been  developed  by  the  study  of  physical 
science,  and  their  practical  applications  have  only 
been  effectually  accomplished  within  our  own 
day,  and,  indeed,  some  of  the  most  important  of 
them  during  the  building  of  the  Bridge.  For 
use  in  the  caissons,  the  perfecting  of  the  elec- 
tric light  came  too  late,  though,  happily,  in  sea- 
son for  the  illumination  of  the  finished  work. 

This  construction  has  not  only  employed  every 
abstract    conclusion   and  formula  of  mathematics, 


49 

whether  derived  from  the  study  of  the  earth  or 
the  heavens,  but  the  whole  structure  may  be  said 
to  rest  upon  a  mathematical  foundation.  The 
great  discoveries  of  chemistry,  showing  the  com- 
position of  water,  the  nature  of  gases,  the  prop- 
erties of  metals ;  the  laws  and  processes  of 
physics,  from  the  strains  and  pressures  of  mighty 
masses  to  the  delicate  vibrations  of  molecules, 
are  all  recorded  here.  Every  department  of  hu- 
man industry  is  represented,  from  the  quarrying 
and  the  cutting  of  the  stones,  the  mining  and 
smelting  of  the  ores,  the  conversion  of  iron 
into  steel  by  the  pneumatic  process,  to  the  final 
shaping  of  the  masses  of  metal  into  useful  forms, 
and  its  reduction  into  wire,  so  as  to  develop  in 
the  highest  degree  the  tensile  strength  which 
fits  it  for  the  work  of  suspension.  Every  tool 
which  the  ingenuity  of  man  has  invented  has 
somewhere,  in  some  special  detail,  contributed 
its  share  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  final 
result. 

"  Ah  !   what  a  wondrous  thing  it  is 
To  note  how  many  wheels  of   toil 
One  word,  one  thought  can  set  in  motion." 
4 

Fletcher  Free  Library, 

Finrlinerton.  Vt. 


50 

But  without  the  most  recent  discoveries  of 
science,  which  have  enabled  steel  to  be  substi- 
tuted for  iron — applications  made  since  the  orig- 
inal plans  of  the  Bridge  were  devised — we  should 
have  had  a  structure  fit,  indeed,  for  use,  but  of 
such  moderate  capacity  that  we  could  not  have 
justified  the  claim  which  we  are  now  able  to 
make,  that  the  cities  of  New  York  and  Brook- 
lyn have  constructed,  and  to-day  rejoice  in  the 
possession  of,  the  crowning  glory  of  an  age 
memorable  for  great  industrial  achievements. 

This  is  not  the  proper  occasion  for  describing 
the  details  of  this  undertaking.  This  grateful 
task  will  be  performed  by  the  engineer  in  the 
final  report,  with  which  every  great  work  is  prop- 
erly committed  to  the  judgment  of  posterity. 
But  there  are  some  lessons  to  be  drawn  from 
the  line  of  thought  I  have  followed  wrhich  may 
encourage  and  comfort  us  as  to  the  destiny  of 
man  and  the  outcome  of  human  progress. 

What  message,  then,  of  hope  and  cheer  does 
this  achievement  convey  to  those  who  would  fain 
believe  that  love  travels  hand  in  hand  with  light 
along  the  rugged  pathway  of  time  ?  Have  the 


discoveries  of  science,  the  triumphs  of  art  and 
the  progress  of  civilization,  which  have  made  its 
accomplishment  a  possibility  and  a  reality,  pro- 
moted the  welfare  of  mankind,  and  raised  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  to  a  higher  plane  of 
life? 

This  question  can  best  be  answered  by  com- 
paring the  compensation  of  the  labor  employed 
in  the  building  of  this  Bridge  with  the  earnings 
of  labor  upon  works  of  equal  magnitude  in  ages 
gone  by.  The  money  expended  for  the  work  of 
construction  proper  on  the  Bridge,  exclusive  of 
land  damages  and  other  outlays,  such  as  inter- 
est, not  entering  into  actual  cost,  is  nine  mil- 
lion ($9,000,000)  dollars.  This  money  has  been 
distributed  in  numberless  channels — for  quarry- 
ing, for  mining,  for  smelting,  for  fabricating  the 
metals,  for  shaping  the  materials,  and  erecting 
the  work,  employing  every  kind  and  form  of 
human  labor.  The  wages  paid  at  the  Bridge 
itself  may  be  taken  as  the  fair  standard  of  the 
wages  paid  for  the  work  done  elsewhere.  These 
wages  are  : 


52 

Average. 
Laborers,    -     -     -     -    - .   $i    75  per  day. 

Blacksmiths,      -     -     -     -     3  50  to  $4  oo  do. 

Carpenters,     -     -     -     -        3  oo  to     3  50  do. 

Masons  and  Stonecutters,  3  50  to     4  oo  do. 

Riggers, 2  oo  to     2  50  do. 

Painters,     -----        2  oo  to     3  50  do. 

Taking  all  these  kinds  of  labor  into  account, 
the  wages  paid  for  work  on  the  Bridge  will 
thus  average  $2.50  per  day. 

Now,  if  this  work  had  been  done  at  the  time 
when  the  Pyramids  were  built,  with  the  skill, 
appliances  and  tools  then  in  use,  and  if  the 
money  available  for  its  execution  had  been  lim- 
ited to  nine  million  ($9,000,000)  dollars,  the 
laborers  employed  would  have  received  an  aver- 
age of  not  more  than  two  cents  per  day,  in 
money  of  the  same  purchasing  power  as  the 
coin  of  the  present  era.  In  other  words,  the 
effect  of  the  discoveries  of  new  methods,  tools 
and  laws  of  force,  has  been  to  raise  the  wages 
of  labor  more  than  an  hundred  fold,  in  the 
interval  which  has  elapsed  since  the  Pyramids 
were  built.  I  shall  not  weaken  the  suggestive 


53 

force  of  this  statement  by  any  comments  upon 
its  astounding  evidence  of  progress,  beyond  the 
obvious  corollary  that  such  a  state  of  civilization 
as  gave  birth  to  the  Pyramids  would  now  be 
the  signal  for  universal  bloodshed,  revolution 
and  anarchy.  I  do  not  underestimate  the  hard- 
ships borne  by  the  labor  of  our  time.  They 
are,  indeed,  grievous,  and  to  lighten  them  is,  as 
it  should  be,  the  chief  concern  of  statesman- 
ship. But  this  comparison  proves  that  through 
forty  centuries  these  hardships  have  been  stead- 
ily diminished ;  that  all  the  achievements  of 
science,  all  the  discoveries  of  art,  all  the  inven- 
tions of  genius,  all  the  progress  of  civilization, 
tend  by  a  higher  and  immutable  law  to  the 
steady  and  certain  amelioration  of  the  condition 
of  society.  It  shows  that,  notwithstanding  the 
apparent  growth  of  great  fortunes,  due  to  an 
era  of  unparalleled  development,  the  distribution 
of  the  fruits  of  labor  is  approaching  from  age 
to  age  to  more  equitable  conditions,  and  must, 
at  last,  reach  the  plane  of  absolute  justice 
between  man  and  man. 

But    this    is  not   the    only  lesson  to   be    drawn 


54 

from  such  a  comparison.  The  Pyramids  were 
built  by  the  sacrifices  of  the  living  for  the  dead. 
They  served  no  useful  purpose,  except  to  make 
odious  to  future  generations  the  tyranny  which 
degrades  humanity  to  the  level  of  the  brute.  In 
this  age  of  the  world  such  a  waste  of  effort 
would  not  be  tolerated.  To-day  the  expendi- 
tures of  communities  are  directed  to  useful  pur- 
poses. Except  upon  works  designed  for  defence 
in  time-  of  war,  the  wealth  of  society  is  now 
mainly  expended  in  opening  channels  of  commu- 
nication for  the  free  play  of  commerce,  and  the 
communion  of  the  human  race.  An  analysis  of 
the  distribution  of  the  surplus  earnings  of  man 
after  providing  food,  shelter  and  raiment,  shows 
that  they  are  chiefly  absorbed  by  railways,  canals, 
ships,  bridges  and  telegraphs.  In  ancient  times 
these  objects  of  expenditure  were  scarcely  known. 
Our  Bridge  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous 
examples  of  this  change  in  the  social  condition 
of  the  world,  and  of  the  feeling  of  men.  In 
the  Middle  Ages  cities  walled  each  other  out, 
and  the  fetters  of  prejudice  and  tyranny  held 
the  energies  of  man  in  hopeless  bondage.  To- 


55 

day  men  and  nations  seek  free  intercourse  with 
each  other,  and  much  of  the  force  of  the  intel- 
lect and  energy  of  the  world  is  expended  in 
breaking  down  the  barriers  established  by  nature, 
or  created  by  man,  to  the  solidarity  of  the  human 
race. 

And  yet,  in  view  of  this  tendency,  the  most 
striking  and  characteristic  feature  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  there  still  are  those  who  believe 
and  teach  that  obstruction  is  the  creator  of 
wealth  ;  that  the  peoples  can  be  made  great  and 
free  by  the  erection  of  artificial  barriers  to  the 
beneficent  action  of  commerce,  and  the  unre- 
stricted intercourse  of  men  and  nations  with 
each  other.  If  they  are  right,  then  this  Bridge 
is  a  colossal  blunder,  and  the  doctrine  which 
bids  us  to  love  our  neighbors  as  ourselves  is 
founded  upon  a  misconception  of  the  divine 
purpose. 

But  the  Bridge  is  more  than  an  embodiment 
of  the  scientific  knowledge  of  physical  laws,  or 
a  symbol  of  social  tendencies.  It  is  equally  a 
monument  to  the  moral  qualities  of  the  human 
soul.  It  could  never  have  been  built  by  mere 


56 

knowledge  and  scientific  skill  alone.  It  required, 
in  addition,  the  infinite  patience  and  unwearied 
courage  by  which  great  results  are  achieved.  It 
demanded  the  endurance  of  heat,  and  cold, 
and  physical  distress.  Its  constructors  have  had 
to  face  death  in  its  most  repulsive  form.  Death, 
indeed,  was  the  fate  of  its  great  projector,  and 
dread  disease  the  heritage  of  the  greater  engi- 
neer who  has  brought  it  to  completion.  The 
faith  of  the  saint  and  the  courage  of  the  hero 
have  been  combined  in  the  conception,  the 
design  and  the  execution  of  this  work. 

Let  us,  then,  record  the  names  of  the  engi- 
neers and  foremen  who  have  thus  made  humanity 
itself  their  debtor  for  a  successful  achievement, 
not  the  result  of  accident  or  of  chance,  but  the 
fruit  of  design,  and  of  the  consecration  of  all 
personal  interest  to  the  public  weal.  They  are  : 
John  A.  Roebling,  who  conceived  the  project 
and  formulated  the  plan  of  the  Bridge  ;  Wash- 
ington A.  Roebling,  who,  inheriting  his  father's 
genius,  and  more  than  his  .  father's  knowledge 
and  skill,  has  directed  the  execution  of  this  great 
work  from  its  inception  to  its  completion  ;  aided 


57 

in  the  several  departments  by  Charles  C.  Martin, 
Francis  Collingwood,  William  H.  Paine,  George 
W.  McNulty,  Wilhelm  Hildenbrand  and  Samuel 
R.  Probasco  as  assistant  engineers ;  and  as  foremen 
by  E.  F.  Farrington,  Arthur  V.  Abbott,  William 
Van  der  Bosch,  Charles  Young  and  Harry  Tup- 
pie,  who,  in  apparently  subordinate  positions, 
have  shown  themselves  peculiarly  fitted  to  com- 
mand, because  they  have  known  how  to  serve. 
But  the  record  would  not  be  complete  without 
reference  to  the  unnamed  men  by  whose  unflinch- 
ing courage,  in  the  depths  of  the  caissons,  and 
upon  the  suspended  wires,  the  work  was  carried 
on  amid  storms,  and  accidents,  and  dangers,  suf- 
ficient to  appall  the  stoutest  heart.  To  them  we 
can  only  render  the  tribute  which  history  accords 
to  those  who  fight  as  privates  in  the  battles  of 
freedom,  with  all  the  more  devotion  and  patriot- 
ism because  their  names  will  never  be  known 
by  the  world  whose  benefactors  they  are.  One 
name,  however,  which  may  find  no  place  in  the 
official  records,  cannot  be  passed  over  here  in 
silence.  In  ancient  times  when  great  works 
were  constructed,  a  goddess  was  chosen,  to  whose 


58 

tender  care  they  were  dedicated.  Thus  the  ruins 
of  the  Acropolis  to-day  recall  the  name  of  Pallas 
Athene  to  an  admiring  world.  In  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  blessing  of  some  saint  was  invoked  to 
protect  from  the  rude  attacks  of  the  barbarians, 
and  the  destructive  hand  of  time,  the  building 
erected  by  man's  devotion  to  the  worship  of 
God.  So,  with  this  Bridge  will  ever  be  coupled 
the  thought  of  one,  through  the  subtle  alembic 
of  whose  brain,  and  by  whose  facile  fingers,  com- 
munication was  maintained  between  the  direct- 
ing power  of  its  construction,  and  the  obedient 
agencies  of  its  execution.  It  is  thus  an  ever- 
lasting monument  to  the  self-sacrificing  devotion 
of  woman,  and  of  her  capacity  for  that  higher 
education  from  which  she  has  been  too  long 
debarred.  The  name  of  Mrs.  Emily  Warren 
Roebling  will  thus  be  inseparably  associated  with 
all  that  is  admirable  in  human  nature,  and  with 
all  that  is  wonderful  in  the  constructive  world 
of  art. 

This  tribute  to  the  engineers,  however,  would 
not  be  deserved,  if  there  is  to  be  found  any  evi- 
dence of  deception  on  their  part  in  the  origin 


59 

of  the  work,  or  any  complicity  with  fraud  in  its 
execution  and  completion.  It  is  this  consider- 
ation which  induced  me  to  accept  the  unexpected 
invitation  of  the  trustees  to  speak  for  the  city 
of  New  York  on  the  present  occasion.  When 
they  thus  honored  me,  they  did  not  know  that 
John  A.  Roebling  addressed  to  me  the  letter  in 
which  he  first  suggested  (and,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  he  was  the  first  engineer  to  suggest),  the 
feasibility  of  a  bridge  between  the  two  cities,  so 
constructed  as  to  preserve  unimpaired  the  free- 
dom of  navigation.  This  letter,  dated  June  19, 
1857,  I  caused  to  be  printed  in  the  New  York 
Journal  of  Commerce,  where  it  attracted  great 
attention  because  it  came  from  an  engineer  who 
had  already  demonstrated,  by  successfully  build- 
ing suspension  bridges  over  the  Schuylkill,  the 
Ohio  and  the  Niagara  rivers,  that  he  spoke  with 
the  voice  of  experience  and  authority.  This 
letter  was  the  first  step  towards  the  construction 
of  the  work,  which,  however,  came  about  in  a 
manner  different  from  his  expectations,  and  was 
finally  completed  on  a  plan  more  extensive  than 
he  had  ventured  to  describe.  It  has  been  charged 


6o 

that  the  original  estimates  of  cost  have  been  far 
exceeded  by  the  actual  outlay.  If  this  were 
true,  the  words  of  praise  which  I  have  uttered 
for  the  engineers,  who  designed  and  executed 
this  work,  ought  rather  to  have  been  a  sentence 
of  censure  and  condemnation.  Hence,  the  invi- 
tation which  came  to  me  unsought,  seemed  rather 
to  be  an  appeal  from  the  grave  for  such  vindi- 
cation as  it  was  within  my  power  to  make,  and 
which  could  not  come  with  equal  force  from 
any  other  quarter. 

Engineers  are  of  two  kinds  :  the  creative  and 
the  constructive.  The  power  to  conceive  great 
works  demands  imagination  and  faith.  The  crea- 
tive engineer,  like  the  poet,  is  born,  not  made.  If 
to  the  power  to  conceive,  is  added  the  ability  to 
execute,  then  have  we  one  of  those  rare  gen- 
iuses who  not  only  give  a  decided  impulse  to 
civilization,  but  add  new  glory  to  humanity. 
Such  men  were  Michael  Angelo,  Leonardo  da 
Vinci,  Watt,  Wedgwood,  Brunei,  Stephenson  and 
Bessemer;  and  such  a  man  was  John  A.  Roebling. 
It  was  his  striking  peculiarity,  that  while  his 
conceptions  were  bold  and  original,  his  execution 


6i 

was  always  exact,  and  within  the  limits  of  cost 
which  he  assigned  to  the  work  of  his  brain.  He 
had  made  bridges  a  study,  and  had  declared 
in  favor  of  the  suspension  principle  for  heavy 
traffic,  when  the  greatest  living  authorities  had 
condemned  it  as  costly  and  unsafe.  When  he 
undertook  to  build  a  suspension  bridge  for  rail- 
way use,  he  did  so  in  the  face  of  the  deliberate 
judgment  of  the  profession,  that  success  would 
be  impossible.  Stephenson  had  condemned  the 
suspension  principle  and  approved  the  tubular 
girder  for  railway  traffic.  But  it  was  the  Nemesis 
of  his  fate,  that  when  he  came  out  to  approve 
the  location  of  the  great  tubular  bridge  at  Mon- 
treal, he  should  pass  over  the  Niagara  River  in 
a  railway  train,  on  a  suspension  bridge,  which 
he  had  declared  to  be  an  impracticable  under- 
taking. 

When  Roebling  suggested  the  Bridge  over 
the  East  River,  his  ideas  were  limited  to  the 
demands  of  the  time,  and  controlled  by  the 
necessity  for  a  profitable  investment.  He  had 
no  expectation  that  the  two  cities  would  embark 
in  the  enterprise.  Indeed,  in  one  of  his  letters 


62 

so  late  as  April  14,  1860,  he  says,  "As  to  the 
corporations  of  New  York  and  Brooklyn  under- 
taking the  job,  no  such  hope  may  be  enter- 
tained in  our  time."  In  eight  years  thereafter, 
these  cities  had  undertaken  the  task  upon  a 
scale  of  expense  far  exceeding  his  original  ideas 
of  a  structure,  to  be  built  exclusively  by  pri- 
vate capital  for  the  sake  of  profit. 

How  came  this  miracle  to  pass?  The  war  of 
the  rebellion  occurred,  delaying  for  a  time  the 
further  consideration  of  Roebling's  ideas.  This 
war  accustomed  the  nation  to  expenditures  on 
a  scale  of  which  it  had  no  previous  conception. 
It  did  more  than  expend  large  sums  of  money. 
Officials  became  corrupt  and  organized  them- 
selves for  plunder.  In  the  city  of  New  York, 
especially,  the  government  fell  into  the  hands 
of  a  band  of  thieves,  who  engaged  in  a  series 
of  great  and  beneficial  public  works,  not  for  the 
good  they  might  do,  but  for  the  opportunity 
which  they  would  afford  to  rob  the  public  treasury. 
They  erected  court-houses  and  armories  ;  they 
opened  roads,  boulevards  and  parks  ;  and  they 
organized  two  of  the  grandest  devices  for  trans- 


63 

portation  which  the  genius  of  man  has  ever 
conceived;' a  rapid  transit  railway  for  New  York, 
and  a  great  highway  between  New  York  and 
Brooklyn.  The  Bridge  was  commenced,  but  the 
Ring  was  driven  into  exile  by  the  force  of  pub- 
lic indignation,  before  the  rapid  transit  scheme, 
since  executed  on  a  different  route  by  private 
capital,  was  undertaken.  The  collapse  of  the  Ring 
brought  the  work  on  the  Bridge  to  a  stand-still. 
It  was  a  timely  event.  The  patriotic  New 
Yorker  might  well  have  exclaimed,  just  before 
this  great  deliverance,  in  the  words  of  the  Con- 
sul of  ancient  Rome,  in  Macaulay's  stirring  poem, 

"And  if   they  once  may  win  the  bridge, 
What  hope  to  save  the  town  ? " 

Meanwhile,  the  elder  Roebling  had  died,  leav- 
ing behind  him  his  estimates  and  the  general 
plans  of  the  structure,  to  cost,  independent  of 
land  damages  and  interest,  about  $7,000,000. 
This  great  work  which,  if  not  "  conceived  in 
sin,"  was  "  brought  forth  in  iniquity,"  thus  be- 
came the  object  of  great  suspicion,  and  of  a 
prejudice  which  has  not  been  removed  to  this 
day.  I  know  that  to  many  I  make  a  startling 


64 

announcement,  when  I  state  the  incontrovertible 
fact,  that  no  money  was  ever  stolen  by  the  Ring 
from  the  funds  of  the  Bridge ;  that  the  whole 
money  raised  has  been  honestly  expended  ;  that 
the  estimates  for  construction  have  not  been 
materially  exceeded  ;  and  that  the  excess  of  cost 
over  the  estimates  is  due  to  purchases  of  land 
which  were  never  included  in  the  estimates  ;  to 
interest  paid  on  the  city  subscriptions ;  to  the 
cost  of  additional  height  and  breadth  of  the 
Bridge ;  and  the  increase  in  strength  rendered 
necessary  by  a  better  comprehension  of  the  vol- 
ume of  traffic  between  the  two  cities.  The  items 
covered  by  the  original  estimate  of  $7,000,000 
have  thus  been  raised  to  $9,000,000,  so  that 
$2,000,000  represents  the  addition  to  the  orig- 
inal estimates. 

For  this  excess,  amounting  to  less  than  thirty 
per  cent.,  there  is  actual  value  in  the  Bridge  in 
dimension  and  strength,  whereby  its  working 
capacity  has  been  greatly  increased.  The  car- 
riage-ways, as  originally  designed,  would  have 
permitted  only  a  single  line  of  vehicles  in  each 
direction.  The  speed  of  the  entire  procession, 


65 

more  than  a  mile  long,  would,  therefore,  have 
been  limited  by  the  rate  of  the  slowest ;  and 
every  accident  causing  stoppage  to  a  single  cart 
would  have  stopped  everything  behind  it  for  an 
indefinite  period.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  the  removal  of  this  objection,  by  widening 
the  carriage-ways,  has  multiplied  manifold  the 
practical  usefulness  of  the  Bridge. 

The  statement  I  have  made  is  due  to  the 
memory  not  only  of  John  A.  Roebling,  but  also 
of  Henry  C.  Murphy,  that  great  man  who  devot- 
ed his  last  years  to  this  enterprise ;  and  who, 
having,  like  Moses,  led  the  people  through  the 
toilsome  way,  was  permitted  only  to  look,  but 
not  to  enter  upon  the  promised  land. 

This  testimony  is  due  also  to  the  living 
trustees  and  to  the  engineers  who  have  con- 
trolled and  directed  this  large  expenditure  in 
the  public  service,  the  latter,  in  the  conscientious 
discharge  of  professional  duty  ;  and  the  former, 
with  no  other  object  than  the  welfare  of  the 
public,  and  without  any  other  possible  reward 
than  the  good  opinion  of  their  fellow-citizens. 

I   do    not    make  this    statement    without   a  full 

5 


66 

sense  of  the  responsibility  which  it  involves,  and 
I  realize  that  its  accuracy  will  shortly  be  tested 
by  the  report  of  experts  who  are  now  examin- 
ing the  accounts.  But  it  will  be  found  that  I 
have  spoken  the  words  of  truth  and  soberness. 
When  the  Ring  absconded  I  was  asked  by  Wil- 
liam C.  Havemeyer,  then  the  Mayor  of  New 
York,  to  become  a  trustee,  in  order  to  inves- 
tigate the  expenditures,  and  to  report  as  to  the 
propriety  of  going  on  with  the  work.  This  duty 
was  performed  without  fear  or  favor.  The 
methods  by  which  the  Ring  proposed  to  benefit 
themselves  were  clear  enough,  but  its  members 
fled  before  they  succeeded  in  reimbursing  them- 
selves for  the  preliminary  expenses  which  they 
had  defrayed.  With  their  flight  a  new  era  com- 
menced, and  during  the  three  years  when  I 
acted  as  a  trustee,  I  am  sure  that  no  fraud  was 
committed,  and  that  none  was  possible.  Since 
that  time  the  Board  has  been  controlled  by 
trustees,  some  of  whom  are  thorough  experts 
in  bridge  building,  and  the  others  men  of  such 
high  character  that  the  suggestion  of  malpractice 
is  improbable  to  absurdity. 


67 

The  Bridge  has  not  only  been  honestly  built, 
but  it  may  be  safely  asserted  that  it  could  not 
now  be  duplicated  at  the  same  cost.  Much 
money  might,  however,  have  been  saved  if  the 
work  had  not  been  delayed  through  want  of 
means,  and  unnecessary  obstacles  interposed  by- 
mistaken  public  officials.  Moreover,  measured  by 
its  capacity,  and  the  limitations  imposed  on  its 
construction  by  its  relation  to  the  interests  of 
traffic  and  navigation,  it  is  the  cheapest  structure 
ever  erected  by  the  genius  of  man.  This  will  be 
made  evident  by  a  single  comparison  with  the 
Britannia  Tubular  Bridge  erected  by  Stephenson 
over  the  Menai  Straits.  He  adopted  the  tubu- 
lar principle,  because  he  believed  that  the  sus- 
pension principle  could  not  be  made  practical 
for  railway  traffic,  although  he  had  to  deal  with 
spans  not  greater  than  470  feet.  He  built  a 
structure  that  contained  10,540  tons  of  iron,  and 
cost  601,000  pounds  sterling,  or  about  $3,000,- 
ooo.  Fortunately  he  has  left  a  calculation  on 
record  as  to  the  possible  extension  of  the  tubu- 
lar girder,  showing  that  it  would  reach  the  lim- 
its in  which  it  could  bear  only  its  own  weight 


68 

(62,000  tons),  at  1,5/0  feet.  Now,  for  a  span 
of  1,595^  feet,  the  Brooklyn  Bridge  contains  but 
6,740  tons  of  material,  and  will  sustain  seven 
times  its  own  weight.  Its  cost  is  $9,000,000, 
whereas  a  tubular  bridge  for  the  same  span 
would  contain  ten  times  the  weight  of  metal, 
and  though  costing  twice  as  much  money,  would 
be  without  the  ability  to  do  any  useful  work. 

Roebling,  therefore,  solved  the  problem  which 
had  defied  Stephenson  ;  and  upon  his  design 
has  been  built  a  successful  structure,  at  half 
the  cost  of  a  tubular  bridge  that  would  have 
fallen  when  loaded  in  actual  use.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  furnish  any  more  striking  proof  of  the 
genius  which  originated,  and  of  the  economy 
which  constructed  this  triumph  of  American 
engineering. 

We  have  thus  a  monument  to  the  public  spirit 
of  the  two  cities,  created  by  an  expenditure  as 
honest  and  as  economical  as  the  management 
which  gave  us  the  Erie  Canal,  the  Croton 
Aqueduct,  and  the  Central  Park.  Otherwise, 
it  would  have  been  a  monument  to  the  eternal 
infamy  of  the  trustees  and  of  the  engineers 


under  whose  supervision  it  has  been  erected,  and 
this  brings  me  to  the  final  consideration  which 
I  feel  constrained  to  offer  on  this  point. 

During  all  these  years  of  trial,  and  false 
report,  a  great  soul  lay  in  the  shadow  of  death, 
praying  only  to  stay  long  enough  for  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work  to  which  he  had  devoted  his 
life.  I  say  a  great  soul,  for  in  the  spring-time . 
of  youth,  with  friends  and  fortune  at  his  com- 
mand, he  gave  himself  to  his  country,  and  for 
her  sake  braved  death  on  many  a  well-fought 
battle-field.  When  restored  to  civil  life,  his 
health  was  sacrificed  to  the  duties  which  had 
devolved  upon  him,  as  the  inheritor  of  his  fath- 
er's fame,  and  the  executor  of  his  father's  plans. 
Living  only  for  honor,  and  freed  from  the  temp- 
tations of  narrow  means,  how  is  it  conceivable 
that  such  a  man — whose  approval  was  necessary 
to  every  expenditure — should,  by  conniving  with 
jobbers,  throw  away  more  than  the  life  which 
was  dear  to  him,  that  he  might  fulfill  his  des- 
tiny, and  leave  to  his  children  the  heritage  of  a 
good  name  and  the  glory  of  a  grand  achieve- 
ment ?  Well  may  this  suffering  hero  quote  the 


;o 

words  of  Hyperion :  "  Oh,  I  have  looked  with 
wonder  upon  those,  who,  in  sorrow  and  priva- 
tion, and  bodily  discomfort,  and  sickness,  which 
is  the  shadow  of  death,  have  worked  right  on 
to  the  accomplishment  of  their  great  purposes ; 
toiling  much,  enduring  much,  fulfilling  much  ; 
and  then,  with  shattered  nerves,  and  sinews  all 
unstrung,  have  laid  themselves  down  in  the 
grave,  and  slept  the  sleep  of  death,  and  the 
world  talks  of  them  while  they  sleep !  And 
as  in  the  sun's  eclipse  we  can  behold  the  great 
stars  shining  in  the  heavens,  so  in  this  life- 
eclipse  have  these  men  beheld  the  lights  of  the 
great  eternity,  burning  solemnly  and  forever!" 

And  now  what  is  to  be  the  outcome  of  this 
great  expenditure  upon  the  highway  which 
unites  the  two  cities,  for  which  Dr.  Storrs  and 
I  have  the  honor  to  speak  to-day?  That  Brook- 
lyn will  gain  in  numbers  and  in  wealth  with 
accelerated  speed  is  a  foregone  conclusion. 
Whether  this  gain  shall  in  any  wise  be  at  the 
expense  of  New  York,  is  a  matter  in  regard  to 
which  the  great  metropolis  does  not  concern 
herself.  Her  citizens  are  content  with  the  knowl- 


71 

edge  that  she  exists  and  grows  with  the  growth 
of  the  whole  country,  of  whose  progress  and 
prosperity  she  is  but  the  exponent  and  the 
index.  Will  the  Bridge  lead,  as  has  been  for- 
cibly suggested,  and  in  some  quarters  hopefully 
anticipated,  to  the  further  union  of  the  two 
cities  under  one  name  and  one  government  ? 
This  suggestion  is  in  part  sentimental  and  in 
part  practical.  So  far  as  the  union  in  name  is 
concerned,  it  is  scarcely  worth  consideration,  for 
in  any  comparison  which  our  national  or  local 
pride  may  institute  between  this  metropolis  and 
the  other  great  cities  of  the  world,  its  environ- 
ment, whether  in  Long  Island,  Staten  Island,  or 
New  Jersey,  will  always  be  included.  In.  con- 
sidering the  population  of  London,  no  one  ever 
separates  the  city  proper  from  the  surrounding 
parts.  They  are  properly  regarded  as  one  homo- 
geneous aggregation  of  human  beings. 

It  is  only  when  we  come  to  consider  the  prob- 
lem of  governing  great  masses  that  the  serious 
elements  of  the  question  present  themselves, 
and  must  be  determined  before  a  satisfactory 
answer  can  be  given.  The  tendency  of  modern 


72 

civilization  is  towards  the  concentration  of  popu- 
lation in  dense  masses.  This  is  due  to  the 
higher  and  more  diversified  life,  which  can  be 
secured  by  association  and  co-operation  on  a 
large  scale,  affording  not  merely  greater  comfort 
and  often  luxury,  but  actually  distributing  the 
fruits  of  labor  on  a  more  equitable  basis  than 
is  possible  in  sparsely  settled  regions  and  among 
feeble  communities.  The  great  improvements  of 
our  day  in  labor-saving  machinery,  and  its  appli- 
cation to  agriculture,  enable  the  nation  to  be 
fed  with  a  less  percentage  of  its  total  force 
thus  applied,  and  leave  a  larger  margin  of 
population  free  to  engage  in  such  other  pursuits 
as  are  best  carried  on  in  large  cities. 

The  disclosures  of  the  last  census  prove  the 
truth  of  this  statement.  At  the  first  census  in 
1790  the  population  resident  in  cities  was  3.3 
per  cent,  of  the  total  population.  This  percent- 
age slowly  gained  at  each  successive  census, 
until  in  1840  it  had  reached  8.5  per  cent.  In 
fifty  years  it  had  thus  gained  a  little  over  five 
per  cent.  But  in  1850  it  rose  to  12.5  per 
cent.  ;  in  1860  it  was  16.  i  per  cent.  ;  in  1870  it 


73 

was  20.9  per  cent,  having  in  this  one  decade 
gained  as  much  as  in  the  first  fifty  years  of  our 
political  existence.  In  1880  the  population  resi- 
dent in  cities  was  22.5  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
population. 

With  this  rapid  growth  of  urban  population, 
have  grown  the  contemporaneous  complaints  of 
corrupt  administration  and  bad  municipal  gov- 
ernment. The  outcry  may  be  said  to  be  univer- 
sal, for  it  comes  from  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic ; 
and  the  complaints  appear  to  be  in  direct  pro- 
portion to  the  size  of  cities.  It  is  obvious, 
therefore,  that  the  knowledge  of  the  art  of  local 
government  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  growth 
of  population.  I  am  here  by  your  favor  to 
speak  for  the  city  of  New  York,  and  I  should 
be  the  last  person  to  throw  any  discredit  on  its 
fair  fame  ;  but  I  think  I  only  give  voice  to  the 
general  feeling,  when  I  say  that  the  citizens  of 
New  York  are  satisfied  neither  with  the  struc- 
ture of  its  government,  nor  with  its  actual 
administration,  even  when  it  is  in  the  hands  of 
intelligent  and  honest  officials.  Dissatisfied  as  we 
are,  no  man  has  been  able  to  devise  a  system 


74 

which  commends  itself  to  the  general  approval, 
and  it  may  be  asserted  that  the  remedy  is  not 
to  be  found  in  devices  for  any  special  machinery 
of  government.  Experiments  without  number 
have  been  tried,  and  suggestions  in  infinite 
variety  have  been  offered,  but  to-day  no  man 
can  say  that  we  have  approached  any  nearer  to 
the  idea  of  good  government,  which  is  demanded 
by  the  intelligence  and  the  wants  of  the  com- 
munity. 

If,  therefore,  New  York  has  not  yet  learned 
to  govern  itself,  how  can  it  be  expected  to  be 
better  governed  by  adding  half  a  million  to 
its  population,  and  a  great  territory  to  its  area, 
unless  it  be  with  the  idea  that  a  "  little  leaven 
leaveneth  the  whole  lump."  Is  Brooklyn  that 
leaven?  If  not,  and  if  possibly  "  the  salt  has 
lost  its  savor,  wherewith  shall  it  be  salted?" 
Brooklyn  is  now  struggling  with  this  problem, 
it  remains  to  be  seen  with  what  success  ;  but 
meanwhile  it  is  idle  to  consider  the  idea  of  get- 
ting rid  of  our  common  evils  by  adding  them 
together. 

Besides  it  is   a  fundamental   axiom   in  politics, 


75 

approved  by  the  experience  of  older  countries, 
as  well  as  of  our  own,  that  the  sources  of  power 
should  never  be  far  removed  from  those  who 
are  to  feel  its  exercise.  It  is  the  violation  of 
this  principle  which  produces  chronic  revolution 
in  France,  and  makes  the  British  rule  so  obnox- 
ious to  the  Irish  people.  This  evil  is  happily 
avoided  when  a  natural  boundary  circumscribes 
administration  within  narrow  limits.  While, 
therefore,  we  rejoice  together  at  the  new  bond 
between  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  we  ought  to 
rejoice  the  more,  that  it  destroys  none  of  the 
conditions  which  permit  each  city  to  govern 
itself,  but  rather  urges  them  to  a  generous  rival- 
ry in  perfecting  each  its  own  government,  recog- 
nizing the  truth,  that  there  is  no  true  liberty 
without  law,  and  that  eternal  vigilance,  which  is 
the  only  safeguard  of  liberty,  can  best  be  exer- 
cised within  limited  areas. 

It  would  be  a  most  fortunate  conclusion,  if  the 
completion  of  this  Bridge  should  arouse  pub- 
lic attention  to  the  absolute  necessity  of  good 
municipal  government,  and  recall  the  only  prin- 
ciple upon  which  it  can  ever  be  successfully 


76 

I 

founded.  There  is  reason  to  hope  that  this 
result  will  follow,  because  the  erection  of  this 
structure  shows  how  a  problem,  analagous  to 
that  which  confronts  us  in  regard  to  the  city 
government,  has  been  met  and  solved  in  the 
domain  of  physical  science. 

The  men  who  controlled  this  enterprise  at 
the  outset  were  not  all  of  the  best  type ;  some 
of  them,  as  we  have  seen,  were  public  jobbers. 
But  they  knew  that  they  could  not  build  a 
bridge,  although  they  had  no  doubt  of  their 
ability  to  govern  a  city.  They  thereupon  pro- 
ceeded to  organize  the  knowledge  which  existed 
as  to  the  construction  of  bridges ;  and  they 
held  the  organization  thus  created  responsible 
for  results.  Now,  we  know  that  it  is  at  least 
as  difficult  to  govern  a  city  as  to  build  a 
bridge,  and  yet,  as  citizens,  we  have  deliberately 
allowed  the  ignorance  of  the  .community  to  be 
organized  for  its  government,  and  we  then  com- 
plain that  it  is  a  failure.  Until  we  imitate  the 
example  of  the  Ring,  and  organize  the  intelligence 
of  the  community  for  its  government,  our  com- 
plaint is  childish  and  unreasonable.  But  we 


77 

shall  be  told  that  there  is  no  analogy  between 
building  a  bridge  and  governing  a  city.  Let  us 
examine  this  objection.  A  city  is  made  up  of 
infinite  interests.  They  vary  from  hour  to  hour, 
and  conflict  is  the  law  of  their  being.  Many 
of  the  elements  of  social  life  are  what  mathe- 
maticians term  "  variables  of  the  independent 
order."  The  problem  is,  to  reconcile  these  con- 
flicting interests  and  variable  elements  into  one 
organization  which  shall  work  without  jar,  and 
allow  each  citizen  to  pursue  his  calling,  if  it 
be  an  honest  one,  in  peace  and  quiet. 

Now,  turn  to  the  Bridge.  It  looks  like  a 
motionless  mass  of  masonry  and  metal ;  but,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  instinct  with  motion. 
There  is  not  a  particle  of  matter  in  it  which  is 
at  rest  even  for  the  minutest  portion  of  time. 
It  is  an  aggregation  of  unstable  elements,  chang- 
ing with  every  change  in  the  temperature,  and 
every  movement  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  The 
problem  was,  out  of  these  unstable  elements,  to 
produce  absolute  stability  ;  and  it  was  this  prob- 
lem which  the  engineers,  the  organized  intelli- 
gence, had  to  solve,  or  confess  to  inglorious 


failure.  The  problem  has  been  solved.  In  the 
first  construction  of  suspension  bridges  it  was 
attempted  to  check,  repress  and  overcome  their 
motion,  and  failure  resulted.  It  was  then  seen 
that  motion  is  the  law  of  existence  for  suspen- 
sion bridges,  and  provision  was  made  for  its  free 
play.  Then  they  became  a  success.  The  Bridge 
before  us  elongates  and  contracts  between  the 
extremes  of  temperature  from  14  to  16  inches ; 
the  vertical  rise  and  fall  in  the  centre  of  the 
main  span  ranges  between  2  ft.  3  in.  and  2  ft. 
9  in.  ;  and  before  the  suspenders  were  attached 
to  the  cable  it  actually  revolved  on  its  own 
axis  through  an  arc  of  thirty  degrees,  when 
exposed  to  the  sun  shining  upon  it  on  one  side. 
You  do  not  perceive  this  motion,  and  you  would 
know  nothing  about  it  unless  you  watched  the 
gauges  which  record  its  movement. 

Now  if  our  political  system  were  guided  by 
organized  intelligence,  it  would  not  seek  to 
repress  the  free  play  of  human  interests  and 
emotions,  of  human  hopes  and  fears,  but  would 
make  provision  for  their  development  and  exer- 
cise, in  accordance  with  the  higher  law  of  liberty 


79 

and  morality.  A  large  portion  of  our  vices 
and  crimes  are  created  either  by  law,  or  its  mal- 
administration. These  laws  exist  because  organ- 
ized ignorance,  like  a  highwayman  with  a  club, 
is  permitted  to  stand  in  the  way  of  wise  legis- 
lation and  honest  administration,  and  to  demand 
satisfaction  from  the  spoils  of  office,  and  the 
profits  of  contracts.  Of  this  state  of  affairs  we 
complain,  and  on  great  occasions  the  community 
arises  in  its  wrath,  and  visits  summary  punish- 
ment on  the  offenders  of  the  hour,  and  then 
relapses  into  chronic  grumbling  until  grievances 
sufficiently  accumulate  to  stir  it  again  to  action. 

What  is  the  remedy  for  this  state  of  affairs  ? 
Shall  there  be  no  more  political  parties,  and 
shall  we  shatter  the  political  machinery  which, 
bad  as  it  is,  is  far  better  than  no  machinery  at 
all?  Shall  we  embrace  nihilism  as  our  creed, 
because  we  have  practical  communism  forced 
upon  us  as  the  consequence  of  jobbery,  and  the 
imposition  of  unjust  taxes  ? 

No,  let  us  rather  learn  the  lesson  of  the 
Bridge.  Instead  of  attempting  to.  restrict  suf- 
frage, let  us  try  to  educate  the  voters ;  instead 


8o 

of  disbanding  parties,  let  each  citizen  within  the 
party  always  vote,  but  never  for  a  man  who  is 
unfit  to  hold  office.  Thus  parties,  as  well  as 
voters,  will  be  organized  on  the  basis  of  intelli- 
gence. 

But  what  man  is  fit  to  hold  office  ?  Only  he 
who  regards  political  office  as  a  public  trust, 
and  not  as  a  private  perquisite  to  be  used  for 
the  pecuniary  advantage  of  himself  or  his  fam- 
ily, or  even  his  party.  Is  there  intelligence 
enough  in  these  cities,  if  thus  organized  within 
the  parties,  to  produce  the  result  which  we 
desire  ?  Why,  the  overthrow  of  the  Tweed  Ring 
was  conclusive  evidence  of  the  preponderance  of 
public  virtue  in  the  city  of  New  York.  In  no 
other  country  in  the  world,  and  in  no  other 
political  system  than  one  which  provides  for  and 
secures  universal  suffrage,  would  such  a  sudden 
and  peaceful  revolution  have  been  possible.  The 
demonstration  of  this  fact  was  richly  worth  the 
twenty-five  or  thirty  millions  of  dollars  which 
the  thieves  had  stolen.  Thereafter,  and  thence- 
forth, there  could  be  no  doubt  whether  our 
city  population,  heterogeneous  as  it  is,  contains 


8i 

within  itself  sufficient  virtue  for  its  own  preser- 
vation. Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  the  rem- 
edy is  complete ;  that  it  is  ever  present ;  that 
no  man  ought  to  be  deprived  of  the  opportunity 
of  its  exercise  ;  and  that,  if  it  be  exercised,  the 
will  of  the  community  can  never  be  paralyzed. 
Our  safety  and  our  success  rest  on  the  ballot 
in  the  hands  of  freemen  at  the  polls,  deliber- 
ately deposited,  never  for  an  unworthy  man, 
but  always  with  a  profound  sense  of  the  respon- 
sibility which  should  govern  every  citizen  in  the 
exercise  of  this  fundamental  right. 

If  the  lesson  of  the  Bridge,  which  I  have  thus 
sought  to  enforce,  shall  revive  the  confidence  of 
the  people  in  their  own  power,  and  induce  them 
to  use  it  practically  for  the  election  to  office  of 
good  men,  clothed,  as  were  the  engineers,  with 
sufficient  authority,  and  held,  as  they  were,  to 
corresponding  responsibility  for  results,  then, 
indeed,  will  its  completion  be  a  public  blessing, 
worthy  of  the  new  era  of  industrial  development 
in  which  it  is  our  fortunate  lot  to  live. 

Great,  indeed,  has  been  our  national  pro- 
gress. Perhaps  we,  who  belong  to  a  commercial 


82 

community,  do  not  fully  realize  its  significance 
and  promise.  We  buy  and  sell  stocks,  without 
stopping  to  think  that  they  represent  the  most 
astonishing  achievements  of  enterprise  and  skill 
in  the  magical  extension  of  our  vast  railway 
system  ;  we  speculate  in  wheat,  without  reflect- 
ing on  the  stupendous  fact  that  the  plains  of 
Dakota  and  California  are  feeding  hungry  mouths 
in  Europe  ;  we  hear  that  the  Treasury  has  made 
a  call  for  bonds,  and  forget  that  the  rapid 
extinction  of  our  national  debt  is  a  proof  of 
our  prosperity  and  patriotism,  as  wonderful  to 
the  world  as  was  the  power  we  exhibited  in  the 
struggle  which  left  that  apparently  crushing  bur- 
den upon  us.  If,  then,  we  deal  successfully 
with  the  evils  which  threaten  our  political  life, 
who  can  venture  to  predict  the  limits  of  our 
future  wealth  and  glory — wealth  that  shall  enrich 
all;  glory  that  shall  be  no  selfish  heritage,  but 
the  blessing  of  mankind?  Beyond  all  legends 
of  oriental  treasure,  beyond  all  dreams  of  the 
golden  age,  will  be  the  splendor,  and  majesty, 
and  happiness  of  the  free  people  dwelling  upon 
this  fair  domain,  when  fulfilling  the  promise  of 


83 

the  ages  and  the  hopes  of  humanity  they  shall 
have  learned  how  to  make  equitable  distribution 
among  themselves  of  the  fruits  of  their  common 
labor.  Then,  indeed,  will  be  realized  by  a  wait- 
ing world  the  youthful  vision  of  our  own  Bryant : 

"  Here  the  free  spirit  of   mankind  at  length 
Throws  its  last  fetters  off ;    and  who  shall  place 

A  limit  to  the  giant's  untamed  strength, 
Or  curb  its  swiftness  in  the  forward  race  ? 

Far,  like  the  comet's  way  through  infinite  space, 
Stretches  the  long  untraveled  path  of  light 

Into  the  depths  of  ages ;    we  may  trace 
Distant,  the  brightening  glory  of  its  flight, 
Till  the  receding  rays  are  lost  to  human  sight." 

At  the  ocean  gateway  of  such  a  nation  well 
may  stand  the  stately  figure  of  "  Liberty  enlight- 
ening the  World  ; "  and,  in  hope  and  faith,  as 
well  as  gratitude,  we  write  upon  the  towers  of 
our  beautiful  Bridge,  to  be  illuminated  by  her 
electric  ray,  the  words  of  exultation,  "  Finis 
coronal  opus." 


ORATION 

OF 

RICHARD  S.  STORKS,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


MR.  CHAIRMAN — FELLOW-CITIZENS:  It  can  sur- 
prise no  one.  that  we  celebrate  the  completion 
of  this  great  work,  in  which  lines  of  delicate  and 
aerial  grace  are  combined  with  a  strength  more 
enduring  than  of  marbles,  and  the  woven  wires 
prolong  to  these  heights  the  metropolitan  ave- 
nues. After  delays  which  have  often  disturbed 
the  popular  patience,  and  have  oftener  disap- 
pointed the  hopes  of  the  builders,  we  gratefully 
welcome  this  superb  consummation  :  rejoicing  to 
know  that  "the  silver  streak"  which  so  long  has 
divided  this  city  from  the  continent,  is  conquered, 
henceforth,  by  the  silver  band  stretching  above 
it,  careless  alike  of  wind  and  tide,  of  ice  and  fog, 
of  current  and  of  calm. 


85 

To  the  mind  which,  for  fourteen  years,  has 
watched,  guided,  and  governed  the  work,  looking 
out  upon  it  through  physical  organs  almost  fatal- 
ly smitten  in  its  prosecution,  we  bring  our  eager 
and  unanimous  tribute  of  honor  and  applause. 
He  who  took  up,  elaborated,  and  has  brought 
to  fulfillment  the  plans  of  the  father  whose 
own  life  had  been  sacrificed  in  their  further- 
ance, has  builded  to  both  the  noblest  memorial. 
He  may  with  truth  have  said,  heretofore,  as  the 
furnaces  have  glowed  from  which  this  welded 
network  has  come,  in  the  words  of  Schiller's 
-Lay  of  the  Bell:" 

"  Deep  hid  within  the  nether  cell 

What  Force  with  Fire  is  moulding  thus, 
In  yonder  airy  towers  shall  dwell, 
And  witness  wide  and  far  of  us." 

He  may,  at  this  hour,  add  for  himself  the  lines 
which  the  poet  hears  from  the  lips  of  his  House- 
Master  : 

"  My  house  is  built  upon  a  rock, 
And  sees  unmoved  the  stormy  shock 
Of  waves  that  fret  below." 

It  must  be  a  superlative  moment  in  life  when 


86 

one  stands  on  a  structure  as  majestic  as  this 
which  was  at  first  a  mere  thought  in  the  brain, 
which  was  afterward  a  plan  on  the  paper,  and 
which  has  been  transported  hither,  from  quarry 
and  mine,  from  wood-yard  and  workshop,  on  the 
point  of  his  pencil. 

He  would  be  the  first  to  acknowledge  also,  if 
he  were  speaking,  the  intelligent,  faithful,  inde- 
fatigable service  rendered  in  execution  of  his 
plans  by  those  who  have  been  associated  with 
him,  as  assistant  engineers,  as  master  mechanics, 
or  as  trained,  trusted,  and  experienced  workmen. 
On  their  knowledge  and  vigilance,  their  practiced 
skill  and  patient  fidelity,  the  work  has  of  neces- 
sity largely  depended  for  its  completed  grace 
and  strength.  They  have  wrought  the  zealous 
labor  of  years  into  all  parts  of  it  ;  and  it  will 
bear  to  them  hereafter,  as  it  does  to-day,  most 
honorable  witness. 

Some  of  our  honored  fellow-citizens,  who  have 
borne  a  distinguished  part  in  this  enterprise,  are 
no  more  here  to  share  our  festivities.  Mr.  John 
H.  Prentice,  for  years  the  Treasurer  of  the  Board, 
wise  in  counsel,  of  a  liberal  yet  a  watchful  econ- 


8? 

omy,  of  incorruptible  integrity,  passed  from  the 
earth  two  years  ago  ;  but  to  those  who  knew 
him  his  memory  is  as  fresh  as  the  verdure  above 
his  grave  at  Greenwood.  More  lately,  one  who 
had  been  from  the  outset  associated  with  what 
to  many  appeared  this  visionary  plan,  to  whose 
capacity  and  experience,  his  legal  skill,  his  legis- 
lative influence,  his  social  distinction,  the  work 
has  been  always  largely  indebted,  and  who  was 
for  years  the  President  of  the  Board,  has  followed 
into  the  silent  land.  It  is  a  grief  to  all  who  knew 
him  that  he  is  not  here  to  see  the  consumma- 
tion of  labors  and  plans  which  for  years  had  occu- 
pied his  life.  But  his  face  and  figure  are  before 
us,  almost  as  distinctly  as  if  he  were  present  ; 
and  it  will  be  only  the  dullest  forgetfulness  which 
can  ever  cease  to  connect  with  this  Bridge  the 
name  of  the  accomplished  scholar,  the  experi- 
enced diplomatist,  the  untiring  worker,  the  cordial 
and  ever-helpful  friend,  Mr.  Henry  C.  Murphy. 

But  others  remain  to  whom  the  work  has 
brought  its  burdens,  of  labor,  care,  and  long 
solicitude,  sometimes,  no  doubt,  of  a  public  crit- 
icism whose  imperious  sharpness  they  may  have 


88 

felt,  but  who  have  followed  their  plans  to  com- 
pletion, without  wavering  or  pause ;  who  have, 
indeed,  expanded  those  plans  as  the  progress  of 
the  work  has  suggested  enlargement ;  and  who, 
to-day,  enter  the  reward  which  belongs  to  those 
who,  after  promoting  a  magnificent  enterprise, 
see  it  accomplished.  Among  them  are  two  who 
were  associated  with  it  at  the  beginning,  and 
who  have  continued  so  associated  from  that 
day  to  this — Mr.  William  C.  Kingsley,  Mr.  James 
S.  T.  Stranahan.  The  judgment  cannot  be  mis- 
taken which  affirms  that  to  these  men,  more 
than  to  any  other  citizens  remaining  among  us, 
the  prosecution  of  this  work  to  its  crowning 
success  is  properly  ascribed.  They  are  the  true 
orators  of  the  hour.  We  may  praise,  but  they 
have  builded.  On  the  tenacity  of  their  purpose, 
of  which  that  of  these  combining  wires  only  pre- 
sents the  physical  image, — on  the  lift  of  their 
wills,  stronger  than  of  these  consenting  cables,— 
the  immense  structure  has  risen  to  its  place. 
No  grander  work  has  it  been  given  to  men  to 
do  for  the  city,  which  will  feel  the  unfailing 
impulse  of  their  foresight  and  courage,  their 


89 

wisdom  in  counsel,  and  their  resolute  service, 
to  the  end  of  its  history ! 

Mr.  William  Marshall,  Gen.  Henry  W.  Slocum, 
were  also  connected  with  the  work  at  the  out- 
set, and,  with  intervals  in  the  period  of  their 
service,  have  given  it  important  assistance  to 
the  end ;  while  others  are  with  us  who  have 
joined  with  intelligence,  enthusiasm,  and  helpful- 
ness in  the  councils  of  the  Board  at  different 
times.  We  rejoice  in  the  presence  of  all  those 
who,  earlier  or  later,  have  taken  part  in  the 
plans,  at  once  vast  and  minute,  which  now  are 
realized.  We  offer  them  the  tribute  of  our 
admiring  and  grateful  esteem.  We  trust  that 
their  remembrance  of  the  work  they  have  accom- 
plished, and  their  personal  experience  of  its  man- 
ifold benefits,  may  continue  through  many  happy 
years.  And  we  congratulate  ourselves,  as  well 
as  them,  that  the  city  will  keep  the  memorial  of 
them,  not  in  yonder  tablets  alone,  but  in  the 
great  fabric  above  which  those  stand,  while  stone 
and  steel  retain  their  strength. 

But,  after  all,  the  real  builder  of  this  surpassing 
and  significant  structure  has  been  the  people : 


9o 

whose  watchfulness  of  its  progress  has  been 
constant,  whose  desire  for  its  benefits  has  been 
the  incentive  behind  its  plans,  by  whom  its  treas- 
ury has  been  supplied,  whose  exultant  gladness 
now  welcomes  its  success.  The  people  of  New 
York  have  illustrated  anew  their  magnanimous 
spirit  in  cheerfully  supplying  their  share  of  the 
cost,  though  not  anticipating  from  such  large 
outlay  direct  reliefs  and  signal  advantages.  The 
people  of  Brooklyn  have  shown  at  feast  an  intel- 
ligent, intrepid,  and  far-sighted  sagacity,  in  read- 
ily accepting  the  immediate  burdens  in  expecta- 
tion of  future  returns. 

Such  a  popular  achievement  is  one  to  be 
proud  of.  St.  Petersburg  could  be  commenced 
1 80  years  ago — almost  to  a  day,  on  May  27th, 
i  703 — and  could  afterward  be  built,  by  the  will 
of  an  autocrat,  to  give  him  a  new  centre  of 
empire,  with  a  nearer  outlook  over  Europe ; 
its  palaces  rising  on  artificial  foundations,  which 
it  cost,  it  is  said,  100,000  lives  in  the  first  year 
to  lay.  Paris  could  be  reconstructed,  twenty-five 
years  ago,  by  the  mandate  of  an  emperor,  deter- 
mined to  make  it  more  beautiful  than  before,  to 


91 

open  new  avenues  for  guns  and  troops,  to  give 
to  its  laborers,  who  might  become  troublesome, 
desired  occupation.  But  not  only  have  these 
cities  of  ours  been  founded,  built,  reconstructed 
by  the  people,  but  this  charming  and  mighty 
avenue  in  the  air,  by  which  they  are  henceforth 
rebuilt  into  one,  is  to  the  people's  honor  and 
praise.  It  shows  what  multitudes,  democratically 
organized,  can  do  if  they  will.  It  will  show,  to 
those  who  shall  succeed  us,  to  what  largeness  of 
enterprise,  what  patience  of  purpose,  what  lib- 
eral wisdom,  the  populations  now  ruling  these 
associated  cities  were  competent  in  their  time. 
It  takes  the  aspect,  as  so  regarded,  of  a  durable 
monument  to  Democracy  itself. 

We  congratulate  the  Mayors  of  both  the  cities, 
with  their  associates  in  the  government  of  them, 
on  the  public  spirit  manifested  by  both,  on  the 
ampler  opportunities  offered  to  each,  and  on 
those  intimate  alliances  between  them  which  are 
a  source  of  happiness  to  both,  and  which  are 
almost  certainly  prophetic  of  an  organic  union 
to  be  realized  hereafter.  And  we  trust  that  the 
crosses,  encircled  by  the  laurel  wreath,  on  the 


92 

original  seal  of  New  Amsterdam,  with  the  Dutch 
legend  of  this  city,  "  Union  makes  Strength," 
may  continue  to  describe  them,  whether  or  not 
stamped  upon  parchments  and  blazoned  on  ban- 
ners, as  long  as  human  eyes  shall  see  them. 

The  work  now  completed  is  of  interest  to  both 
cities,  and  its  enduring  and  multiplying  benefits 
will  be  found,  we  are  confident,  to  be  common, 
not  local. 

We  who  have  made  and  steadfastly  kept  our 
homes  in  Brooklyn,  and  who  are  fond  and  proud 
of  the  city — for  its  fresh,  bracing,  and  healthful 
air,  and  the  brilliant  outstretch  of  sea  and  land 
which  opens  from  its  Heights  ;  for  its  scores  of 
thousands  of  prosperous  homes ;  for  its  unsur- 
passed schools,  its  co-operating  churches,  the 
social  temper  which  pervades  it,  the  independ- 
ence and  enterprise  of  its  journals,  and  the  local 
enthusiasms  which  they  fruitfully  foster ;  for  its 
general  liberality,  and  the  occasional  splendid 
examples  of  individual  munificence  which  have 
given  it  fame  ;  for  its  recent  but  energetic  insti- 
tutions, of  literature,  art,  and  a  noble  philan- 
thropy ;  and  for  the  stimulating  enterprise  and 


93 

culture  of  the  young  life  which  is  coming  to  com- 
mand in  it — we  have  obvious  reason  to  rejoice 
in  the  work  which  brings  us  into  nearer  connec- 
tion with  all  that  is  delightful  and  all  that  is 
enriching  in  the  metropolis,  and  with  that  diverg- 
ing system  of  railways,  overspreading  the  con- 
tinent, which  has  in  the  commercial  capital  its 
natural  centre  of  radiation. 

We  have  no  word  of  criticism  to  speak,  only 
words  of  most  hearty  admiration,  for  the  safe 
and  speedy  water-service  on  the  lines  of  the 
ferries  which  has  given  us  heretofore  such  easy 
transportation  from  city  to  city,  without  delays 
that  were  not  unavoidable,  and  with  remarkable 
exemption  from  disaster.  So  far  as  human  care- 
fulness and  skill  could  assure  safety  and  speed, 
in  the  midst  of  conditions  unfriendly  to  both, 
the  management  of  these  ferries  has  been  peer- 
less, their  success  unsurpassed.  To  them  is  due, 
in  largest  measure,  the  rapid  growth  already 
here  realized.  They  have  formed  the  indispens- 
able arteries,  of  supply  and  transmission,  through 
which  the  circulating  life-blood  has  flowed,  and 
their  ministry  to  this  city  has  been  constant  and 


94 

vital.  But  we  confess  ourselves  glad  to  reach, 
with  surer  certainty  and  a  greater  rapidity,  the 
libraries  and  galleries,  the  churches  and  the 
homes,  as  well  as  the  resorts  of  business  and 
of  pleasure,  with  which  we  are  now  in  instant 
connection  ;  and  the  horizon  widens  around  us 
as  we  touch  with  more  immediate  contact  the 
lines  of  travel  which  open  hence  to  the  edges 
of  the  continent. 

If  we  have  not  as  much  to  offer  in  immedi- 
ate return,  we  have,  at  least,  a  broad  expanse  of 
uncovered  acres  within  the  city,  for  the  easy 
occupation  of  those  who  wish  homes,  either  mod- 
est or  splendid,  or  who  shall  wish  such  as  the 
growth  of  the  metropolis  multiplies  its  popula- 
tion into  the  millions,  crowds  its  roofs  higher 
toward  the  stars,  and  makes  a  productive  silver 
mine  of  each  several  house-lot.  And  to  those 
who  visit  us  but  at  intervals  we  can  open  not 
only  yonder  park,  set  like  an  emerald  in  the 
great  circular  sweep  of-  our  boundaries  from  the 
waters  of  the  Narrows  to  the  waters  of  the 
Sound,  but  also  their  readiest  approach  to  the 
ocean.  The  capital  and  the  sea  are  henceforth 


95 

brought  to  nearer  neighborhood.  Long  Island 
bays,  and  brooks,  and  beaches,  are  within  readier 
reach  of  the  town.  The  winds  that  have  touch- 
ed no  other  land  this  side  of  Cuba  are  more 
accessible  to  those  who  seek  their  tonic  breath. 
The  long  roll  of  the  surf  on  the  shore  breaks 
closer  than  before  to  office  and  mansion,  and  to 
tenement  chamber. 

The  benefits  will,  therefore,  be  reciprocal, 
which  pass  back  and  forth  across  this  solid  and 
stately  frame-work  ;  and  both  cities  will  rejoice, 
we  gladly  hope,  in  the  patience  and  labor,  the 
disciplined  skill,  the  large  expenditure,  of  which 
it  is  the  trophy  and  fruit.  New  York  has  now 
the  unique  opportunity  to  widen  its  boundaries 
to  the  sea,  and  around  its  brilliant  civic  shield, 
more  stately  and  manifold  than  that  of  Achilles, 
by  the  aid  of  those  who  have  wrought  already 
these  twisted  bracelets  and  clasping  cables,  to 
set  the  glowing  margin  of  the  Ocean-stream. 

This  work  is  important,  too,  we  cannot  but 
feel,  in  wider  relations  ;  for  what  it  signifies,  as 
for  what  it  secures,  and  for  all  that  it  promises. 
Itself  a  representative  product  and  part  of  the 


96 

new  civilization,  one  standing  on  it  finds  an  out- 
look from  it  of  larger  circumference  than  that 
of  these  cities. 

Every  enterprise  like  this,  successfully  accom- 
plished, becomes  an  incentive  to  others  like  it.  It 
leads  on  to  such,  and  supplies  incessant  encour- 
agement to  them.  We  may  not  know,  or  proba- 
bly conjecture,  what  these  are  to  be,  in  the  city 
or  the  State,  in  the  years  that  shall  come.  But, 
whatever  they  may  be,  for  the  more  complete 
equipment  of  either  with  conditions  of  happi- 
ness and  the  instruments  of  progress,  they  will 
all  take  an  impulse  from  that  which  here  has 
been  accomplished.  Such  a  trophy  of  triumph 
over  an  original  obstacle  of  Nature  will  not 
contribute  to  sleep  in  others ;  and  whatever  is 
needed  of  material  improvement,  throughout  the 
State  of  which  it  is  our  pride  to  be  citizens,  will 
be  only  more  surely  and  speedily  supplied  because 
of  this  impressive  success. 

It  is,  therefore,  most  fitting  to  our  festival  that 
we  are  permitted  to  welcome  to  it  the  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  State,  with  those  representing 
its  different  regions  in  the  legislative  councils. 


97 

We  rejoice  to  remember  that  the  work  before 
us  has  been  assisted  by  the  favoring  action  of 
those  heretofore  in  authority  in  the  State  ;  and 
we  trust  that  to  those  now  holding  high  offices 
in  it,  who  are  present  to-day,  the  occasion  will 
be  one  of  pleasant  experience,  and  of  enlarged 
and  reinforced  expectation. 

Indeed,  it  is  not  extravagant  to  say  that  the 
future  of  the  country  opens  before  us,  as  we  see 
what  skill  and  will  can  do  to  overleap  obstacles, 
and  make  nature  subservient  to  human  designs. 
So  we  gladly  welcome  these  eminent  men  from 
other  States ;  while  the  presence  of  the  Execu- 
tive Head  of  the  Nation,  and  of  some  of  the 
members  of  his  Cabinet,  is  appropriate  to  the 
time,  as  it  is  an  occasion  of  sincere  and  pro- 
found gratification  to  us  all.  Without  the  con- 
currence of  the  National  Government,  this 
structure,  though  primarily  of  local  relations, 
as  reaching  across  these  navigable  waters,  could 
not  have  been  built.  We  feel  assured  that 
those  honorably  representing  that  Government, 
who  favor  its  completion  with  their  attendance, 

and    in    whose    presence    political    differences    are 

7 


98 

forgotten,  will  share  with  us  in  the  joyful  pride 
with  which  we  regard  it,  and  in  the  inspiring 
anticipation  that  the  physical  apparatus  of  civili- 
zation in  the  land  is  to  take  fresh  impulse,  not 
impediment  or  hindrance,  from  that  which  here 
has  been  effected.  The  day  seems  brought  dis- 
tinctly nearer  when  the  Nation,  equipped  with 
the  latest  implements  furnished  by  science,  shall 
master  and  use  as  never  before  its  rich  domain. 
Not  only  the  modern  spirit  is  here,  even  in 

eminence,    which    dares    great    effort     for    great 

1 

advantage ;  but  the  chiefest  of  modern  instru- 
ments is  here,  which  is  the  ancient  untractable 
iron,  transfigured  into  steel. 

It  was  a  sign,  and  even  a  measure,  of  ancient 
degeneracy,  when  the  age  of  Gold  was  followed 
if  not  forgotten  by  one  of  Iron.  Decadence  of 
arts,  of  learning  and  laws,  of  society  itself,  was 
implied  in  the  fact.  The  more  intrepid  intelli- 
gence, the  more  versatile  energy,  amid  which  we 
live,  have  achieved  the  success  of  combining  the 
two :  so  that  while  it  is  true  now,  as  of  old, 
that  "  no  mattock  plunges  a  golden  edge  into 
the  ground,  and  no  nail  drives  a  silver  point 


99 

into  the  plank,"  it  is  also  true  that,  under  the 
stimulus  of  the  larger  expenditure  which  the 
added  supplies  of  gold  make  possible,  the  duller 
metal  has  taken  a  fineness,  a  brightness  and 
hardness,  with  a  tensile  strength,  before  unfa- 
miliar. 

The  iron,  as  of  old,  quarries  the  gold,  and 
cuts  it  out  from  river-bed  and  from  rock.  But, 
under  the  alchemy  which  gold  applies,  the  iron 
takes  nobler  properties  upon  it.  Converted  into 
steel,  in  masses  that  would  lately  have  staggered 
men's  thoughts,  it  becomes  the  kingliest  instru- 
ment of  peoples  for  subduing  the  earth.  Things 
dainty  and  things  mighty  are  fashioned  from  it 
in  equal  abundance: — gun-carriage  and  cannon, 
with  the  solid  platforms  on  which  they  rest  ; 
the  largest  castings,  and  heaviest  plates,  as  well 
as  wheel,  axle,  and  rail,  as  well  as  screw  or  file 
or  saw.  It  is  shaped  into  the  hulls  of  ships. 
It  is  built  alike  into  column  and  truss,  balcony, 
roof,  and  springing  dome.  To  the  loom  and 
the  press,  and  the  boiler  from  whose  fierce  and 
untiring  heart  their  force  is  supplied,  it  is  equal- 
ly apt ;  while,  as  drawn  into  delicate  wires,  it  is 


IOO 

coiled  into  springs,  woven  into  gauze,  sharpened 
into  needles,  twisted  into  ropes ;  it  is  made  to 
yield  music  in  all  our  homes ;  electric  currents 
are  sent  upon  it,  along  our  streets,  around  the 
world ;  it  enables  us  to  talk  with  correspondents 
afar,  or  it  is  knit,  as  before  our  eyes,  into  the 
new  and  noble  causeways  of  pleasure  and  of 
commerce. 

I  hardly  think  that  we  yet  appreciate  the  sig- 
nificance of  this  change  which  has  passed  upon 
iron.  It  is  the  industrial  victory  of  the  century, 
not  to  have  heaped  the  extracted  gold  in  higher 
piles,  or  to  have  crowded  the  bursting  vaults 
with  accumulated  silver,  but  to  have  conferred, 
by  the  sovereign  touch  of  scientific  invention, 
flexibility,  grace,  variety  of  use,  an  almost  ethe- 
real and  spiritual  virtue,  on  the  stubbornest  of 
common  metals.  The  indications  of  physical 
achievement  in  the  future,  thus  inaugurated, 
outrun  the  compass  of  human  thought. 

Two  bridges  lie  near  each  other,  across  the  his- 
torical stream  of   the  Moldau,  under  the  shadow 
of   the    ancient   and   haughty  palace  at  Prague — 
the  one  the  picturesque  bridge  of   St.  Nepomuk, 


101  _ 

patron  of  bridges  throughout/  Bohemia,  of  mas- 
sive stone,  which  occupied  a  century  and  a  half 
in  its  erection,  and  was  finished  almost  four  cen- 
turies ago,  with  stately  statues  along  its  sides, 
with  a  superb  monument  at  its  end,  sustaining 
symbolic  and  portrait  figures  ;  the  other  an  iron 
suspension-bridge,  built  and  finished  in  three 
years,  a  half  century  since,  and  singularly  con- 
trasting, in  its  lightness  and  grace,  the  sombre 
solidity  of  the  first.  It  is  impossible  to  look 
upon  the  two  without  feeling  how  distinctly  the 
different  ages  to  which  they  belong  are  indicated 
by  them,  and  how  the  ceremonial  and  military 
character  of  the  centuries  that  are  past  has  been 
superseded  by  the  rapid  and  practical  spirit  of 
commerce. 

But  the  modern  bridge  is  there  a  small  one, 
and  rests  at  the  centre  on  an  island  and  a  pier. 
The  structure  before  us,  the  largest  of  its  class 
as  yet  in  the  world,  in  its  swifter,  more  grace- 
ful, and  more  daring  leap  from  bank  to  bank, 
across  the  tides  of  this  arm  of  the  sea,  not  only 
illustrates  the  bolder  temper  which  is  natural 
here,  the  readiness  to  attempt  unparalleled  works, 


IO2 


the  disdain  ol  difficulties  in  unfaltering  reliance 
on  exact  calculation,  but,  in  the  material  out  of 
which  it  is  wrought,  it  shows  the  new  suprem- 
acy of  man  over  the  metal  which,  in  former 
time,  he  scarcely  could  use  save  for  rude  and 
coarse  implements.  The  steel  of  the  blades  of 
Damascus  or  Toledo  is  not  here  needed  ;  nor 
that  of  the  chisel,  the  knife-blade,  the  watch- 
spring,  or  the  surgical  instrument.  But  the  steel 
of  the  mediaeval  lance-head  or  sabre  was  hardly 
finer  than  that  which  is  here  built  into  a  Castle, 
which  the  sea  cannot  shake,  whose  binding  ce- 
ment the  rains  cannot  loosen,  and  before  whose 
undecaying  parapets  open  fairer  visions  of  island 
and  town,  of  earth,  water,  and  sky,  than  from 
any  fortress  along  the  Rhine.  There  is  inex- 
haustible promise  in  the  fact. 

Of  course,  too,  there  is  impressively  before  us— 
installed  as  on  this  fair  and  brilliant  civic  throne 
—that  desire  for  swiftest  intercommunication  be- 
tween towns  and  districts  divided  from  each 
other,  which  belongs  to  our  times,  and  which  is 
to  be  an  energetic,  enduring,  and  salutary  force 
in  moulding  the  nation. 


io3 

The  years  are  not  distant  in  which  separated 
communities  regarded  each  other  with  aversion 
and  distrust,  and  the  effort  was  mutual  to  raise 
barriers  between  them,  not  to  unite  them  in 
closer  alliance.  Now,  the  traffic  of  one  is  vitally 
dependent  on  the  industries  of  the  other  ;  the 
counting-room  in  the  one  has  the  factory  or 
the  warehouse  tributary  to  it  established  in  the 
other ;  and  the  demand  is  imperative  that  the 
two  be  linked,  by  all  possible  mechanisms,  in  a 
union  as  complete  as  if  no  chasm  had  opened 
between  them.  So  these  cities  are  henceforth 
united  ;  and  so  all  cities,  which  may  minister  to 
each  other,  are  bound  more  and  more  in  inti- 
mate combinations.  Santa  Fe,  which  soon  cele- 
brates the  third  of  a  millenium  since  its  founda- 
tion, reaches  out  its  connections  toward  the 
newest  log-city  in  Washington  Territory ;  and 
the  oldest  towns  upon  our  seaboard  find  allies 
in  those  that  have  risen,  like  exhalations,  along 
the  Western  lakes  and  rivers. 

This  mighty  and  symmetrical  band  before  us 
seems  to  stand  as  the  type  of  all  that  immeas- 
urable communicating  system  which  is  more 


completely  with  every  year  to  interlink  cities,  to 
confederate  States,  to  make  one  country  of  our 
distributed  imperial  domain,  and  to  weave  its 
history  into  a  vast,  harmonious  contexture,  as 
messages  fly  instantaneously  across  it,  and  the 
rapid  trains  rush  back  and  forth,  like  shuttles 
upon  a  mighty  loom. 

It  is  not  fanciful,  either,  to  feel  that  in  all  its 
history,  and  in  what  is  peculiar  in  its  constitu- 
tion, it  becomes  a  noble,  visible  symbol  of  that 
benign  Peace  amid  which  its  towers  and  roadway 
have  risen,  and  which,  we  trust,  it  may  long 
continue  to  signalize  and  to  share. 

We  may  look  at  this  moment  on  the  site  of 
the  ship-yard  from  which,  in  March,  1862,  twenty- 
one  years  ago,  went  forth  the  unmasted  and 
raft-like  "  Monitor,"  with  its  flat  decks,  its  low 
bulwarks,  its  guarded  mechanism,  its  heavy  arm- 
ament, and  its  impenetrable  revolving  turret,  to 
that  near  battle  with  the  "  Merrimac,"  on  which, 
as  it  seemed  to  us  at  the  time,  the  destiny  of 
the  nation  was  perilously  poised.  The  material 
of  which  the  ship  was  wrought  was  largely  that 
which  is  built  in  beauty  into  this  luxurious  lofty 


105 

fabric.  But  no  contrast  could  be  greater  among 
the  works  of  human  genius  than  between  the 
compact  and  rigid  solidity  into  which  the  iron 
had  there  been  forged  and  wedged  and  rammed, 
and  these  waving  and  graceful  curves,  swinging 
downward  and  up,  almost  like  blossoming  fes- 
tooned vines  along  the  perfumed  Italian  lanes ; 
this  alluring  roadway,  resting  on  towers  which 
rise  like  those  of  ancient  cathedrals ;  this  lace- 
work  of  threads,  interweaving  their  separate  deli- 
cate strengths  into  the  complex  solidity  of  the 
whole. 

The  ship  was  for  war,  and  the  Bridge  is  for 
peace  : — the  product  of  it ;  almost,  one  might  say, 
its  express  palpable  emblem,  in  its  harmony  of 
proportions,  its  dainty  elegance,  its  advantages  for 
all,  and  its  ample  convenience.  The  deadly  raft, 
floating  level  with  waves,  was  related  to  this  ethe- 
real structure,  whose  finest  curves  are  wrought  in 
the  strength  of  toughest  steel.  We  could  not 
have  had  this  except  for  that  unsightly  craft, 
which  at  first  refused  to  be  steered,  which 
bumped  headlong  against  our  piers,  which  almost 
sank  while  being  towed  to  the  field  of  its  fame, 


io6 

and  which,  at  last,  when  its  mission  was  fulfilled, 
found  its  grave  in  the  deep  over  whose  waters, 
and  near  their  line,  its  shattering  lightnings  had 
been  shot.  This  structure  will  stand,  we  fondly 
trust,  for  generations  to  come,  even  for  centu- 
ries, while  metal  and  granite  retain  their  coher- 
ence ;  not  only  emitting,  when  the  wind  surges 
or  plays  through  its  network,  that  aerial  music 
of  which  it  is  the  mighty  harp,  but  representing 
to  every  eye  the  manifold  bonds  of  interest  and 
affection,  of  sympathy  and  purpose,  of  common 
political  faith  and  hope,  over  and  from  whose 
mightier  chords  shall  rise  the  living  and  un- 
matched harmonies  of  continental  gladness  and 
praise. 

While  no  man,  therefore,  can  measure  in 
thought  the  vast  processions — 40,000,000  a  year, 
it  already  is  computed — which  shall  pass  back 
and  forth  across  this  pathway,  or  shall  pause  on 
its  summit  to  survey  the  vast  and  bright  pano- 
rama, to  greet  the  break  of  summer-morning,  or 
watch  the  pageant  of  closing  day,  we  may  hope 
that  the  one  use  to  which  it  never  will  need  to 
be  put  is  that  of  war ;  that  the  one  tramp  not 


ID; 

to  be  heard  on  it  is  that  of  soldiers  marching 
to  battle  ;  that  the  only  wheels  whose  roll  it 
shall  not  be  called  to  echo  are  the  wheels  of  the 
tumbrils  of  troops  and  artillery.  Born  of  peace, 
and  signifying  peace,  may  its  mission  of  peace 
be  uninterrupted,  till  its  strong  towers  and  cables 
fall! 

If  such  expectations  shall  be  fulfilled,  of  me- 
chanical invention  ever  advancing,  of  cities  and 
States  linked  more  closely,  of  beneficent  peace 
assured  to  all,  it  is  impossible  to  assign  any 
limit  to  the  coming  expansion  and  opulence  of 
these  cities,  or  to  the  influence  which  they  shall 
exert  on  the  developing  life  of  the  country. 

Cities  have  often,  in  other  times,  been  created 
by  war ;  as  men  were  crowded  together  in  them 
the  better  to  escape  the  whirls  of  strife  by 
which  the  unwalled  districts  were  ravaged,  or 
the  more  effectively  to  combine  their  force 
against  threatening  foes.  And  it  is  a  striking 
suggestion  of  history  that  to  the  frightful  rava- 
ges of  the  Huns — swarthy,  ill-shaped,  ferocious, 
destroying — may  have  been  due  the  Great  Wall 
of  China,  for  the  protection  of  its  remote  towns, 


io8 

as  to  them,  on  the  other  hand,  was  certainly  due 
the  foundation  of  Venice.  The  first  inhabitants 
of  what  has  been  since  that  queenly  city — along 
whose  liquid  and  level  streets  the  traveler  pass- 
es, between  palaces,  churches,  and  fascinating 
squares,  in  constant  delight — its  first  inhabitants 
fled  before  Attila,  to  the  flooded  lagoons  which 
were  afterward  to  blossom  into  the  beauty  of  a 
consummate  art.  The  fearful  crash  of  blood 
and  fire  in  which  Aquileia  and  Padua  fell  smote 
Venice  into  existence. 

But  even  the  city  thus  born  of  war  must 
afterward  be  built  up  by  peace,  when  the  strifes 
which  had  pushed  it  to  its  sudden  beginning 
had  died  into  the  distant  silence.  The  fishing 
industry,  the  manufacture  of  salt,  the  timid  com- 
merce, gradually  expanding  till  it  left  the  riv- 
ers and  sought  the  sea,  these,  with  other  relat- 
ed industries,  had  made  Venetian  galleys  known 
on  the  eastern  Mediterranean  before  the  im- 
mense rush  of  the  crusades  crowded  tumultuous- 
ly  over  its  quays  and  many  bridges.  Its  variety 
of  industry,  and  its  commercial  connections, 
turned  that  vast  movement  into  another  source 


109 

of  wealth.  It  rose  rapidly  to  that  naval  supre- 
macy which  enabled  it  to  capture  piratical  ves- 
sels and  wealthy  galleons,  to  seize  or  sack  Ionian 
cities,  to  storm  Byzantium,  and  make  the  south 
of  Greece  its  suburb.  Its  manufactures  were 
multiplied.  Its  dockyards  were  thronged  with 
busy  workmen.  Its  palaces  were  crowded  with 
precious  and  famous  works  of  art,  while  them- 
selves marvels  of  beauty.  St.  Mark's  unfolded 
its  magnificent  loveliness  above  the  great  square. 
In  the  palace  adjoining  was  the  seat  of  a  domin- 
ion at  the  time  unsurpassed,  and  still  brilliant  in 
history ;  and  it  was  in  no  fanciful  or  exagger- 
ated pride  that  the  Doge  was  wont  yearly,  on 
Ascension  Day,  to  wed  the  Adriatic  with  a  ring, 
as  the  bridegroom  weds  the  bride. 

Dreamlike  as  it  seems,  equally  with  Amster- 
dam, the  larger  and  richer  "  Venice  of  the 
North,"  it  was  erected  by  hardy  hands.  The 
various  works  and  arts  of  peace,  with  a  pros- 
perous commerce,  were  the  real  piles,  sunken 
beneath  the  flashing  surface,  on  which  church 
and 'palace,  piazza,  and  arsenal,  all  arose.  It  was 
only  when  these  unseen  supports  secretly  failed 


no 

that  advancement  ceased,  and  the  horses  of  St. 
Mark  at  last  were  bridled.  Not  all  the  wars, 
with  Genoa,  Hungary,  with  Western  Europe,  the 
Greek  Empire,  or  the  Ottoman — not  earthquake, 
plague,  or  conflagration,  though  by  all  it  was 
smitten — overwhelmed  the  city  whose  place  in 
Europe  had  been  so  distinguished.  The  deca- 
dence of  enterprise,  the  growing  discredit  put 
upon  industry,  the  final  discovery  by  Vasco  da 
Gama  of  the  passage  around  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  diverting  traffic  into  new  channels — these 
laid  their  silent  and  tightening  grasp  on  the 
power  of  Venice,  till 

"  the  salt  sea-weed 
Clung  to  the  marble  of   her  palaces," 

and  the  glory  of  the  past  was  merged  in  a 
gloom  which  later  centuries  have  not  lightened. 
There  is  a  lesson  and  a  promise  in  the  fact. 

New  York  itself  may  almost  be  said  to  have 
sprung  from  war ;  as  the  vast  excitements  of 
the  forty  years'  wrestle  between  Spain  and  its 
revolted  provinces  gave  incentive,  at  least,  to  the 
settlement  of  New  Netherland.  But  the  city, 
since  its  real  development  was  begun,  has  been 


1 1 1 

almost  wholly  built  up  by  peace ;  and  the  swift- 
ness of  its  progress  in  our  own  time,  which 
challenges  parallel,  shows  what,  if  the  ministry  of 
this  peace  shall  continue,  may  be  looked  for  in 
the  future. 

When  the  Dutch  traders  raised  their  store- 
house of  logs  on  yonder  untamed  and  desolate 
strand,  perhaps  as  early  as  1615  ;  when  the  Wal- 
loons established  their  settlement  on  this  side 
of  the  river,  in  1624,  at  that  "Walloons'  Bay" 
which  we  still  call  the  Wallabout ;  or  when,  later, 
in  1626,  Manhattan  Island,  estimated  to  contain 
22,000  acres,  was  purchased  from  the  Indians 
for  $24,  paid  in  beads,  buttons  and  trinkets,  and 
the  Block  House  was  built,  with  cedar  palisades, 
on  the  site  of  the  Battery,  it  is,  of  course,  com- 
monplace to  say  that  they  who  had  come  hither 
could  scarcely  have  had  the  least  conception  of 
what  a  career  they  thus  were  commencing  for 
two  great  cities.  But  it  is  not  so  wholly  com- 
monplace to  say  that  those  who  saw  this  now 
wealthy  and  splendid  New  York  a  hundred  years 
since,  less  conspicuous  than  Boston,  far  smaller 
than  Philadelphia,  with  its  first  bank  established 


I  12 

in  1784,  and  not  fully  chartered  till  seven  years 
later ;  with  its  first  daily  paper  in  1 785  ;  its  first 
ship  in  the  Eastern  trade  returning  in  May  of 
the  same  year ;  its  first  Directory  published  in 
1786,  and  containing  only  900  names;  its  Broad- 
way extending  only  to  St.  Paul's  ;  with  the 
grounds  about  Reade  street  grazing-fields  for  cat- 
tle, and  with  ducks  still  shot  in  that  Beekman's 
Swamp  which  the  traffic  in  leather  has  since 
made  famous :  or  those  who  saw  it  even  fifty 
years  ago,  when  its  population  was  little  more 
than  one-third  of  the  present  population  of  this 
younger  city  ;  when  its  first  Mayor  had  not  been 
chosen  by  popular  election  ;  when  gas  had  but 
lately  been  introduced,  and  the  superseding  of 
the  primitive  pumps  by  Croton  water  had  not 
yet  been  projected — they,  all,  could  hardly  have 
imagined  what  already  the  city  should  have 
become :  the  recognized  centre  of  the  commerce 
of  the  Continent  ;  one  of  the  principal  cities  of 
the  world. 

So  those  who  have  lived  in  this  city  from 
childhood,  and  who  hardly  yet  claim  the  digni- 
ties of  age,  could  scarcely  have  conjectured, 


when  looking  on  what  Mr.  Murphy  recalled  as 
the  village  of  his  youth,  "  a  hamlet  of  a  hundred 
houses,"  that  it  should  have  become,  in  our 
time,  a  city  of  nearly  70,000  dwelling  houses, 
occupied  by  twice  as  many  families ;  with  a  pop- 
ulation, by  the  census  rates,  of  little  less  than 
700,000;  with  more  than  150,000  children  in  its 
public  and  private  schools ;  with  330  miles  of 
paved  streets,  as  many  as  last  year  in  New 
York,  and  with  more  than  200  additional  miles 
impatiently  waiting  to  be  paved;  with  130  miles 
of  street  railway  track,  over  which  last  year 
88,000,000  of  passengers  were  carried ;  with  near- 
ly 2,500  miles  of  telegraph  and  telephone  wire 
knitting  it  together  ;  with  35,000,000  of  gallons 
of  water,  the  best  on  the  continent,  to  which 
20,000,000  more  are  soon  to  be  added,  daily  dis- 
tributed in  its  houses,  through  360  miles  of  pipe  ; 
with  an  aggregate  value  of  real  property  exceed- 
ing certainly  $400,000,000;  with  an  annual  tax 
levy  of  $6,500,000;  with  manufactures  in  it  whose 
reported  product  in  1880  was  $103,000,000;  with 
a  water-front,  of  pier,  dock,  basin,  canal,  already 
exceeding  25  miles,  and  not  as  yet  half  developed, 


at  which  lies  shipping  from  all  the  world,  more 
largely  than  at  the  piers  of  New  York ;  and, 
finally,  with  what  to  most  modern  communities 
appears  to  flash  as  a  costly  but  brilliant  diamond 
necklace,  a  public  debt,  beginning  now  to  dimin- 
ish, it  is  true,  but  still  approaching,  in  net 
amount,  $37,500,000! 

The  child  watches,  in  happy  wonder,  the  swell- 
ing film  of  soapy  water  into  whose  iridescent 
globe  he  has  blown  the  speck  from  the  bowl 
of  the  pipe.  But  this  amazing  development 
around  us  is  not  of  airy  and  vanishing  films. 
It  is  solidly  constructed,  in  marble  and  brick, 
in  stone  and  iron,  while  the  proportions  to  which 
it  has  swelled  surpass  precedent,  and  rebuke  the 
timidity  of  the  boldest  prediction.  But  that 
which  has  built  it  has  been  simply  the  industry, 
manifold,  constant,  going  on  in  these  cities,  to 
which  peace  offers  incentive  and  room. 

Their  future  advancement  is  to  come  in  like 
manner :  not  through  a  prestige  derived  from 
their  history  ;  not  by  the  gradual  increments  of 
their  wealth,  already  collected ;  not  by  the  riches 
which  they  invite  to  themselves  from  other  cities 


and  distant  coasts ;  not  even  from  their  beauti- 
ful fortune  of  location  ;  but  by  prosperous  man- 
ufactures prosecuted  in  them  ;  by  the  traffic 
which  radiates  over  the  country  ;  by  the  foreign 
commerce  which,  in  values  increasing  every  year, 
seeks  this  harbor.  Each  railway  whose  rapid 
wheels  roll  hither,  from  East  or  West,  from 
North  or  South,  from  the  rocks  of  Newfoundland 
or  the  copper-deposits  of  Lake  Superior,  from 
the  orange  groves  of  Florida,  the  Louisiana 
bayous,  the  silver  ridges  of  the  West,  the  Gold- 
en Gate,  gives  its  guaranty  of  growth  to  the 
still  young  metropolis.  On  the  cotton  fields  of 
the  South,  and  its  sugar  plantations  ;  on  coal 
mines,  and  iron  mines;  on  the  lakes  which  winter 
roofs  with  ice,  and  from  which  drips  refresh- 
ing coolness  through  our  summer ;  on  fisheries, 
factories,  wheat  fields,  pine  forests  ;  on  meadows 
wealthy  with  grains  or  grass,  and  orchards  bend- 
ing beneath  their  burdens,  this  enlarging  pros- 
perity must  be  maintained ;  and  on  the  steam- 
ships, and  the  telegraph  lines,  which  interweave 
us  with  all  the  world.  The  swart  miner  must 
do  his  part  for  it  ;  the  ingenious  workman,  in 


n6 

whatever  department ;  the  ploughman  in  the  field, 
and  the  fisherman  on  the  banks  ;  the  man  of 
science,  putting  Nature  to  the  question  ;  the 
laborer,  with  no  other  capital  than  his  muscle  ; 
the  sailor  on  the  sea,  wherever  commerce  opens 
its  wings. 

Our  Arch  of  Triumph  is,  therefore,  fitly  this 
Bridge  of  Peace.  Our  Brandenburg  Gate,  bear- 
ing on  its  summit  no  car  of  military  victory,  is 
this  great  work  of  industrial  skill.  It  stands, 
not,  like  the  Arch  famous  at  Milan,  outside  the 
city,  but  in  the  midst  of  these  united  and  busy 
populations.  And  if  the  tranquil  public  order 
which  it  celebrates  and  prefigures  shall  continue 
as  years  proceed,  not  London  itself,  a  century 
hence,  will  surpass  the  compass  of  this  united 
city  by  the  sea,  in  which  all  civilized  nations  of 
mankind  have  already  their  many  representa- 
tives, and  to  which  the  world  shall  pay  an  in- 
creasing annual  tribute. 

And  so  the  last  suggestion  comes,  which  the 
hour  presents,  and  of  which  the  time  allows  the 
expression. 

It   was   not   to   an   American   mind    alone    that 


we  owed  the  "  Monitor,"  of  which  I  have  spok- 
en, but  also  to  one  trained  in  Swedish  schools, 
the  Swedish  army,  and  representing  that  brave 
nationality.  It  is  not  to  a  native  American  mind 
that  the  scheme  of  construction  carried  out  in  this 
Bridge  is  to  be  ascribed,  but  to  one  represent- 
ing the  German  peoples,  who,  in  such  enriching 
and  fruitful  multitudes,  have  found  here  their 
home.  American  enterprise,  American  money, 
built  them  both.  But  the  skill  which  devised, 
and  much,  no  doubt,  of  the  labor  which  wrought 
them,  came  from  afar. 

Local  and  particular  as  is  the  work,  therefore, 
it  represents  that  fellowship  of  the  Nations  which 
is  more  and  more  prominently  a  fact  of  our 
times,  and  which  gives  to  these  cities  inces- 
sant augmentation.  When,  by  and  by,  on  yonder 
island  the  majestic  French  statue  of  Liberty  shall 
stand,  holding  in  its  hand  the  radiant  crown  of 
electric  flames,  and  answering  by  them  to  those 
as  brilliant  along  this  causeway,  our  beautiful 
bay  will  have  taken  what  specially  illuminates 
and  adorns  it  from  Central  and  from  Western 
Europe.  The  distant  lands  from  which  oceans 


1 1.8 

divide  us,  though  we  touch  them  each  moment 
with  the  fingers  of  the  telegraph,  will  have  set 
this  conspicuous  double  crown  on  the  head  of 
our  harbor.  The  alliances  of  nations,  the  peace 
of  the  world,  will  seem  to  find  illustrious  predic- 
tion in  such  superb  and  novel  regalia. 

Friends,  and  Fellow-Citizens  :  Let  us  not  for- 
get that,  in  the  growth  of  these  cities,  henceforth 
united,  and  destined  ere  long  to  be  formally  one, 
lies  either  a  threat,  or  one  of  the  conspicuous 
promises  of  the  time. 

Cities  have  always  been  powers  hi  history. 
Athens  educated  Greece,  as  well  as  adorned  it, 
while  Corinth  filled  the  throbbing  and  thirsty 
Hellenic  veins  with  poisoned  blood.  The  weight 
of  Constantinople  broke  the  Roman  Empire 
asunder.  The  capture  of  the  same  magnificent 
city  gave  to  the  Turks  their  establishment  in 
Europe  for  the  following  centuries.  Even  where 
they  have  not  had  such  a  commanding  pre-emi- 
nence of  location,  the  social,  political,  moral 
force  proceeding  from  cities  has  been  vigorous 
in  impression,  immense  in  extent.  The  passion 
of  Paris,  for  a  hundred  years,  has  created  or 


directed  the  sentiment  of  France.  Berlin  is 
more  than  the  legislative  or  administrative  cen- 
tre of  the  German  Empire.  Even  a  govern- 
ment as  autocratic  as  that  of  the  Czar,  in  a 
country  as  undeveloped  as  Russia,  has  to  con- 
sult the  popular  feeling  of  St.  Petersburg  or  of 
Moscow. 

In  our  nation,  political  power  is  widely  distrib- 
uted, and  the  largest  or  wealthiest  commercial 
centre  can  have  but  its  share.  Great  as  is  the 
weight  of  the  aggregate  vote  in  these  henceforth 
compacted  cities,  the  vote  of  the  State  will  always 
overbear  it.  Amid  the  suffrages  of  the  nation 
at  large,  it  can  only  be  reckoned  as  one  of  many 
consenting  or  conflicting  factors.  But  the  influ- 
ence which  constantly  proceeds  from  these  cities 
—on  their  journalism,  not  only,  or  on  the  issues 
of  their  book-presses,  or  on  the  multitudes  going 
forth  from  them,  but  on  the  example  presented 
by  them  of  intellectual,  social,  religious  life — this, 
for  shadow  and  check,  or  for  fine  inspiration,  is 
already  of  unlimited  extent,  of  incalculable  force. 
It  must  increase  as  they  expand,  and  are  lifted 
before  the  country  to  a  new  elevation. 


I2O 

A  larger  and  a  smaller  sun  are  sometimes  asso- 
ciated, astronomers  tell  us,  to  form  a  binary 
centre  in  the  heavens,  for  what  is,  doubtless,  an 
unseen  system  receiving  from  them  impulse  and 
light.  On  a  scale  not  utterly  insignificant,  a 
parallel  may  be  hereafter  suggested  in  the  rela- 
tion of  these  combined  cities  to  a  part,  at  least, 
of  our  national  system.  Their  attitude  and  action 
during  the  war — successfully  closed  under  the 
gallant  military  leadership  of  men  whom  we 
gladly  welcome  and  honor — were  of  vast  advan- 
tage to  the  national  cause.  The  moral,  political, 
intellectual  temper,  which  dominates  in  them,  as 
years  go  on,  will  touch  with  beauty,  or  scar  with 
scorching  and  baleful  heats,  extended  regions. 
Their  religious  life,  as  it  glows  in  intensity,  or 
with  a  faint  and  failing  lustre,  will  be  repeated 
in  answering  image  from  the  widening  frontier. 
The  beneficence  which  gives  them  grace  and 
consecration,  and  which,  as  lately,  they  follow  to 
the  grave  with  universal  benediction,  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  selfish  ambitions  which  crowd 
and  crush  along  their  streets,  intent  only  on 
accumulated  wealth  and  its  sumptuous  display, 


or  the  glittering  vices  which  they  accept  and  set 
on  high — these  will  make  their  impression  on 
those  who  never  cross  the  continent  to  our 
homes,  to  whom  our  journals  are  but  names. 

Surely,  we  should  not  go  from  this  hour, 
which  marks  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  these 
cities,  and  which  points  to  their  future  indefinite 
expansion,  without  the  purpose  in  each  of  us, 
that,  so  far  forth  as  in  us  lies,  with  their  increase 
in  numbers,  wealth,  equipment,  shall  also  proceed, 
with  equal  step,  their  progress  in  whatever  is 
noblest  and  best  in  private  and  in  public  life  ; 
that  all  which  sets  humanity  forward  shall  come 
in  them  to  ampler  endowment,  more  renowned 
exhibition  :  so  that,  linked  together,  as  hereafter 
they  must  be,  and  seeing  "the  purple  deepening 
in  their  robes  of  power,"  they  may  be  always 
increasingly  conscious  of  fulfilled  obligation  to 
the  Nation  and  to  God  ;  may  make  the  land,  at 
whose  magnificent  gateway  they  stand,  their  con- 
stant debtor ;  and  may  contribute  their  mighty 
part  toward  that  ultimate  perfect  Human  Society 
for  which  the  seer  could  find  no  image  so  meet 
or  so  majestic  as  that  of  a  City,  coming  down 


122 

from  above,  its  stones  laid  with  fair  colors, 
its  foundations  with  sapphires,  its  windows  of 
agates,  its  gates  of  carbuncles,  and  all  its  bor- 
ders of  pleasant  stones,  with  the  sovereign  prom- 
ise resplendent  above  it,— 

'*  And  great  shall  be  the  Peace  of   thy  children  !  " 


Fletcher  Free  Library, 

Burlington,  Vt. 


. 


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